Lucha contra boom de opio en Afganistán

A senior Afghan official says the United States is planning to supply helicopters to help officials combat surging opium and heroin production. This report from Paul Anderson:

Military-style preparations for a big operation against Afghanistan's drugs industry, planned for the Spring, are taking shape and gathering pace.

First comes news of the planned delivery this year by the United States of eight helicopters, to be used, according to Afghanistan's Deputy Interior Minister, Mohammad Daoud (PHO), in operations by Afghan counter-narcotics agents against targets like refinement laboratories.

It also looks as if the Americans will put aside plans to crop spray poppy fields. The Afghans objected violently after reports last year that poppy fields were sprayed in two provinces. They fear it could harm people's health and legitimate crops and animals.

Ariel spraying is used extensively, and effectively, in drugs eradication programmes in Latin America. But, for the time being, President Karzai has shifted the emphasis to agricultural alternatives for farmers coupled to ground operations.

There are plans to subsidise the farmers above market rates, introduce micro-finance, and develop irrigation channels and other agricultural infrastructure.

Officials are hoping for rapid results, with production down by 30 to 50 per cent on last year according to the head of the anti-narcotics department Habibullah Qaderi.

That would be a significant dent. Last year, opium production rose to more than four and a half thousand tons, fuelling nearly 90 per cent of world demand for opium and its derivatives.

Paul Anderson, BBC, Islamabad

gathering pace
ganar ritmo, velocidad

counter-narcotics
antinarcóticos

put aside
dejar de lado

legitimate
legitimar

eradication
erradicación

shifted the emphasis
puso énfasis, cambió su prioridad

coupled to
vinculados a

irrigation channels
canales de irrigación

dent
mella

derivatives
derivados