Burma's opium cultivation up 14 per cent, 37 per cent in Laos
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Opium cultivation in Burma's insurgency-plagued Kachin and Shan states increased 14 per cent this year while in neighbouring Laos the poppy-growing area jumped 37 per cent, a United Nations report said Thursday.
In north-eastern Burma's Shan State, home to about 91 per cent of the country's crop, the cultivation area was up nearly 13 per cent in 2011 from the previous year.
In Kachin State, just to the north, crop areas were up 27 per cent, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime's annual South-East Asia Opium Survey 2011 said.
Laos saw its opium poppy cultivation increase from 3,000 hectares in 2010 to 4,100 hectares, up 37 per cent, according to agency estimates.
The agency attributed the regional increase in cultivation to rising prices for the illicit drug, and a lack of crop-substitution projects in these remote areas, where in Burma's case there are ongoing insurgencies.
"These projects are a necessity because reductions in illicit crop cultivation and opium production can bring tangible benefits to the lives of ordinary people and also improve regional peace and security," the agency's executive director, Yuri Fedotov, said.//DPA
