First crop harvested

Drugs

First crop harvested

The season's first crop, grown in upland regions of Shan State, are being gathered at the time of this reporting, according to sources along the border.

A cross-border trader told yesterday he was informed of the harvest taking place in the Loi Hon-Loi Maw range east of Hsihseng, a township 34 miles south of Taunggyi only a week earlier. Other sources confirmed the fact by saying the same activities were taking place in Mongkang and Loi Khamlong highlands in Mongton township, opposite Chiangmai.

Sources say only the most needy engages in the backbreaking labor that goes with the first crop.

"For the first thing," explained a former poppy farmer, "the seed-sowing is in July, when you can expect heavy rains and prepare the fields so there is no excess of rain water in them that can destroy the seeds. The second thing is to arrange shelters for the plants as soon as the seed pods have been cut and the sap begins to congeal or it will be washed away by the rains. The makeshift shelters look just like umbrellas, so the ya-zao (first crop) is often called ya-kang-zawng (umbrella-sheltered opium)."

Despite the hard work, the produce is not much. "But it will be just enough for the farmer to buy food to feed his hungry family," insists one source.

For most poppy farmers, both lowlanders and highlanders, ya-karng (middle crop), September-February, when the weather, except for September and October, is normally dry and cool, is preferred. The highest yield of the season is also associated with ya-karng.

Farmers on high elevation also plant ya-long (Big or Final Crop). "For them, heavy dew is all the irrigation they need and the harvest is considered the best quality," said an informed source. "It also means that people who live in remote uplands can grow poppies all year-round if they need to."

Free Burma Ranger, on a relief mission opposite Maehongson province, 1-18 May 2004, reported coming across a ya-long poppy field not yet harvested.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crimes, on the other hand, reported last month that "the end of opium is in sight" in the Golden Triangle.