By this June, southwestern Yunnan Province has helped its bordering
Cambodia and Laos to plant over 900,000 mu (60,000
hectares) cash-bearing crops to relieve their dependence on growing
opium poppy, said sources with the local government.
Sun Dahong, deputy director of the provincial department of
public security said on Friday at the mobilization conference on
poppy alternative development, that by the end of last year, the
Yunnan government has developed 700,000-mu cash-bearing
crops in the northern part of Cambodia and Laos, among which nearly
400,000 mu soil had been planted poppy originally.
It cost the local government an investment of over 500 million
yuan (US$62.5 million).
To crackdown drugs from the origin, the Yunnan government began
to give supports to local enterprises to grow cash-bearing crops in
bordering countries to reduce their dependence on poppy plantation
since the 1990's.
Those crops include grain, rubber, rice, sugar cane, longan, tea
and corn.
According to statistics of the local department of commerce,
from this January to June, 29 local enterprises has invested 170
million yuan in developing 220,000-mu cash-bearing
crops.
Sun said that to develop cash-bearing crops in traditional
opium-plantation-relying region has not only reduce the plantation
of opium, but also driven the development of local economy by
offering local people new way of living and the accelerating
construction of local infrastructures.
News from the conference said that Yunnan plans to develop 1.5
million mu of cash-bearing crops in Cambodia and Laos in
the next five years.
(Xinhua News Agency August 27, 2006)