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An Analysis of the Process of Expansion of Opium Poppy Cultivation to New Districts in Afghanistan

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STRATEGIC STUDY #1

Preliminary Report JUNE 1998

7. The role of itinerant poppy harvesters in expansion

7.1 The skilled nature of harvesting
� All the farmers who had elected to grow opium poppy for the first time in 1998 and who had not worked in other core opium producing areas during previous harvest periods, indicated that they were reliant on hired labour, or experienced family members and personal contacts, for lancing and collection.

Many of these respondents indicated complete ignorance about when lancing and collection should be undertaken, resulting in disagreements between respondents during group interviews. Moreover, the relatively skilled nature of harvesting opium poppy prompted a number of experienced itinerant harvesters from Khogiani to ridicule owner cultivators in Qarghayi for their lack of knowledge of lancing.

Respondents indicated that harvesting requires a degree of experience to optimise the yield of the opium poppy. Identifying capsules ready for lancing requires squeezing each capsule between thumb and forefinger.4/ To the inexperienced the difference between a ripe and an unripe capsule would appear negligible. Lancing too early is thought to significantly affect the final yield.

The incision of the lancing is also considered integral to the final yield. If the incision is too deep the skin of the capsule will be cut and the latex will oxidise in the capsule; too shallow and the flow of the latex will be constrained. The depth of the incision is also dependent on the number of lancings, with the first two lancings requiring a shallower incision than those that follow. To ensure that each lancing is of the right depth, experienced harvesters use two different lancing instruments (neshtars), the first for the first two lancings, the second, with longer blades, for any lancings that follow.

The working conditions are considered arduous by the harvesters. Long hours in the strong sun and the odour of the opium do not make the task pleasant. Lancing occurs in the afternoon from 2pm until dusk. Collecting is undertaken in the morning from sunrise until 10am. Whilst collection of the gum is a task that both men and women undertake, lancing is exclusively the task of men.

7.2 The restricted role of women
In Behsud, Bati Kot, Rodat and Shinwar it was possible to see women actively involved in collecting opium gum. However, due to sensitivities associated with discussing the economic and social responsibilities of women in rural Afghanistan, and current restrictions on employing female local staff, it was not possible to clarify from either the men or the women working in the fields why women were not engaged in lancing. Key informants indicated that many farmers considered the fumes omitted during lancing as too intoxicating for women.

However, a more practical explanation may relate to the productive and reproductive roles of women during the time at which lancing commonly takes place, including the collection of fodder for livestock, food preparation and the gathering of firewood. It is recognised that further work will need be conducted on the ?Role of women in poppy cultivation in Afghanistan and the consequences arising from its replacement for women's economic and social standing', once conditions permit.5/

7.3. Limited on and off-farm income opportunities
The itinerant poppy harvesters interviewed argued that insufficient income earning opportunities had prompted them to search for work in the poppy fields. All those interviewed were either landless or had insufficient land to satisfy their subsistence. It was argued that the high cost of food items, clothing and medicines in Afghanistan, growing household sizes and a lack of on-farm and off-farm income earning opportunities had led to increasing expenditures and dwindling incomes.

Respondents indicated that as a consequence of this cycle they had accumulated increasing levels of household debt. The opium poppy harvest provided them with the opportunity to earn upto two months income if they were willing to travel between regions. However, for some labourers, particularly the elderly and women this would not seem to be an option. Interviews revealed that these groups seem to have less mobility, tending to remain in their local area and harvesting opium poppy in the same village each year. Key informants have suggested that the more mobile poppy harvesters are typically young men with few on-farm or off-farm income earning opportunities.

In Qarghayi and Mehterlam itinerant harvesters were typically from Chaparhar, Surkh Rod and Khogiani. Whilst in Azro farmers indicated that they had contacts in Hisarak, Surkh Rod and Khogiani that would assist them in harvesting their crop.

7.4. Limiting the demands on labour
Given the labour intensive nature of opium cultivation, households were found to have adopted a number of strategies to spread the demands on family and hired labour. Indeed, respondents revealed that those households with larger areas of land dedicated to opium poppy cultivated two different varieties of opium poppy, spingule (white flower) and surgule (pink flower). The difference in the maturation rates of these varieties allowed households a 20 day period in which to harvest their Spingule crop before beginning the harvest of their surgule. Respondents indicated that this would be enough time for one person to harvest approximately two thirds of a jerib of opium poppy.

�Spreading the demand for labourwould appear be a strategy aimed at minimising the hired labour costs incurred by households. However, at the time of the fieldwork respondents indicated that the daily wage for poppy harvesters had not yet been set. A number of respondents suggested that the daily wage would not be determined until the lower lying areas of opium poppy cultivation had completed their harvest. It was claimed that this would form the basis for negotiations in other areas. As such itinerant harvesters appeared to be working without an agreed rate of pay which would seem to considerably weaken their bargaining position. Respondents indicated that it was expected that the agreed rate would be 50,000 Afghanis (Afs) per day for men, although some itinerant harvesters from Khogiani indicated that they expected 100,000 Afs per day.6/ It is noticeable that despite women's role being restricted to collection and thereby only half a days work, the daily rate of pay does not reflect their relative input at only 15,000-20,000 Afs.

Limiting the demands on family labour is also important given the need for supervision of the hired labour force. Cases of theft of opium gum were reported by respondents. Examples were given of itinerant harvesters concealing opium gum in poppy leaves during the collection process. To counteract theft, family members were tasked with the close supervision of wage labourers, including the collection of the gum from each labourer's collection spatula, known as a rambay. The main store of the opium gum, secreted in the shade of the poppy plants, was exclusively the domain of family members.

However, it is worth recognising that the labour costs incurred during opium poppy cultivation may provide externalities for future agricultural activities. One respondent who had planted six jeribs of opium poppy in 1997 had doubled his cultivation in 1998. He suggested that the primary reason for this increase in the amount of land dedicated to opium was the prevalence of weeds on this land. This has been a common claim in other areas, indicating that the labour intensive nature of poppy cultivation with its thinning requirements provides an opportunity to clean the land of weeds at the same time.

�Moreover, key informants suggest that the unsuitability of weeding land when wheat is grown upon it due to the density of its cultivation, means that weeding is not undertaken on an annual basis. Within this context the cultivation of opium poppy is perhaps an investment in the future productivity of the land and its cultivation should not be considered simply a function of its profitability on an annual basis but the profitability of the land over a longer period of crop rotation.7/

7.5. Perceptions of profit
None of the respondents who had planted opium poppy in 1997 or 1998 indicated a desire to stop opium cultivation. Most argued that they would continue its cultivation as long as it was ?profitable'. In discussions regarding the calculation of profit, respondents indicated that they did not include household labour in the assessment of total costs. Seed, fertiliser, rented farmpower and hired labour were included but no cost was attributed to family labour. Providing alternative income earning opportunities for family members, including women, might increase the opportunity cost households associate with opium cultivation and thereby reduce its perceived profitability.

7.6. The threat of expansion within the area
Most importantly first time growers in all three districts indicated that neighbouring households were expressing a particular interest in the progress of their opium crop. It was also noted by respondents that their neighbours were in a lower socio-economic position than themselves due to fewer remittances from temporary or permanent migrants within the family. It was suggested by respondents that the prevalence of under-employed members within the neighbouring households may prompt more intensive opium poppy cultivation during the next sowing season.

4/ Itinerant harvesters in Qarghayi indicated that they expected a yield of approximately 22 Kg per jerib this year compared with 14 Kg per jerib in 1997 due to the increased size of the opium capsules.

5/ This Study will represent Strategic Study 6 in the series.

6/ At the time of fieldwork there were approximately 33,000 Afghanis to one US Dollar in the eastern region.

7/ Strategic Study 5: Access Labour: The Dynamics of the labour market for opium poppy in Afghanistan will undertake more in-depth analysis of the issues discussed in this section during the next opium poppy season.

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