The tractors are uprooting the poppy from the field, a woman is standing beside the field and screaming at the officials with tears in her eyes, "I only have this small poppy land, how can I survive if you destroy my only hope."

The poppy eradication campaign is going on Sunday in Balkh district of Afghan northern Balkh province. The district chief and some policemen went to the area and supervised three tractors uproot the almost one meter high poppy.

"I have no big farm land, this small land is the only life source for my family, that's why I cultivate the poppy. Because with cultivating other crops, it's impossible for us to survive," the 45-year-old lady Ruqia told Xinhua.

Timor Shah Faiez, the district chief who is supervising the eradication process, told the old lady, "Cultivating poppy is illegal in both religious and traditional mean, and we have got the order from the government to destroy all the poppy land. We have no way but to implement the campaign."

There are 11 members in Roqia's family including her husband, one son and eight daughters. Her husband went to the city to find the working opportunity, and her only son is only ten years old who is far from support the family. Her daughters, according to tradition and culture, can't go outside to work.

"It's the second time the government came to destroy my land, but they didn't provide us any other life necessities. If we can survive with cultivating other crops, no one will insist on cultivating poppy," the old lady said.

After the eradication of the small poppy land of Ruqia's family, three tractors went inside another comparatively big land which belongs to Mohammad Ali, a 50-year-old man. Looking at the advancing of the tractors and the destruction of the land, the old man stood in the land, opened his arms to the sky and prayed for the mercy of the God.

"We came back to Afghanistan from Iran after Taliban regime collapse when we heard here are peace and stability, but the living condition and working opportunity made us very disappointed. My first son has joined army since the lack of working chance, and all my other six family members depend on this land to survive. I still have another 4,000 square meters land for wheat, but the crop is only enough for two months. If the situation continues like this, we have no way but to go back to Iran again," the old man told Xinhua.

"We vote for the new government and support them, but what they have done for us?"

Afghanistan with an output of 3,600 tons of opium in 2003 and 4, 200 tons of opium in 2004 has become the single largest supplier of raw material used in manufacturing heroin in the world.

Despite a nominal decrease in poppy cultivation in 2005, the post-war country again secured the first position with 4,100 tons of the opium poppy.Under a strategy launched in May 2003, Afghanistan wants to reduce the poppy cultivation by 75 percent by 2008.

Balkh district is the place where has the biggest poppy cultivation in this northern province. This year, according to the district chief, has carried out a two-stage plan to eradicate the poppy land.

The first one began four months ago, in which about 1,400 hectares of poppy land has been destroyed. The second stage began from March 10, till now about 600 hectares of poppy land has been destroyed. But according to some survey, there are still about 2, 000 to 3,000 hectares or maybe more poppy land left.

After about one to two months, the harvest time will arrive. Timor Shah Faiez, the district chief said in the anxiety-ridden tone, "We still face many problems on the way of poppy eradication process. Firstly, the harvest season is close, and we have no enough time to eradicate all of them especially in some remote areas."

"The financial shortage is the second problem, without the money from the government or donor countries, it's difficult to carry out the campaign continually. But the poppy will not stop growing when we have to stop the eradication."

Providing the life materials, equipment and pesticide to the farmers is not enough, rearranging the market to eradicate the attraction of poppy cultivation is also important. "The smugglers and mafia are very active now, they import all kinds of crops and vegetables from neighboring countries to decrease the price of the goods, which is a kind of indirect way to force the poor farmers to cultivate high-interest poppy," the district chief said.

Being the district chief almost for two years, Timor confessed that the poppy cultivated land this year is much bigger than last year, but the eradication campaign is also more productive this year. "It's a long and hard work for us, and the farmers' demand is reasonable. But even the government didn't promise to give any help, no one can cultivate poppy as it's an illegal action which will do harm to the people and the country."

Today's eradication is just a small part of the whole campaign, the tractors are still busy with uprooting the poppy in the land with big noise. Pieces of poppy land became flat area, the farmers sit and stand beside the land helplessly and said, "Although the government eradicate our poppy land, we hope they will not forget us, please provide some resource and help us."

The tractors still roar in the land and destroy more and more poppy, and some girls were collecting the flowers in the destroyed land, just like collecting hopes for the farmers in the future. Everyone hopes the tractors can also plough the land and plant some wishes for them.

Source: Xinhua