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Access to Labour: The Role of Opium in the Livelihood Strategies of Itinerant Harvesters Working in Helmand Province, Afghanistan

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STRATEGIC STUDY #4

Final Report June 1999

Based on the reports of both respondents and key informants it would seem that itinerant harvesters are typically young and male. The fieldwork for this Study revealed that the average age of respondents was 24, with a range from 10 years of age to 55. However, almost half of those interviewed were under 20, whilst only 16% of respondents were 35 years or older.

Analysis suggests that on average respondents began work as itinerant harvesters at 20 years of age. However, 60% of respondents indicated that they had first harvested opium when they were less than 20, whilst less than 10% reported that they first harvested opium at 35 years or older. It is noticeable that the average age at which those respondents emanating from Helmand reported that they first began harvesting opium poppy was 17 years of age, compared to 23 years of age amongst those from Ghor.

Fieldwork suggests that respondents had been harvesting opium for an average of 4 years. Indeed, almost 75% of those interviewed had been working as itinerant harvesters for less than five years whilst only 6% of respondents had been harvesting opium poppy for more than ten years. One fifth of those interviewed, reported that 1999 was their first year of harvesting opium poppy on a wage labour basis.

Without exception itinerant harvesters in Helmand were found to be male. Indeed, during three weeks fieldwork in five districts, only one female was seen working on the opium poppy harvest. This female was only 11 and was a member of a landless household that was sharecropping in Kajaki. According to her father she was assisting in the harvest of opium poppy so that the household could avoid hiring labour and, subsequently, increase the profit that they accrued from their crop.

The absence of female labour during the opium harvest in the south differs markedly from the eastern region where women can be seen actively engaged in household opium collection. Moreover, whilst rare, female itinerant harvesters have been witnessed working with their spouses close to Jalalabad city.16/

However, it is important to recognise that even in the southern region the opium poppy harvest is a labour intensive time for women as well as men. There was a general consensus that three good quality meals and tea are a standard part of the payment for itinerant harvesters. Given the size of the hired workforce, the preparation of this food and drink is reported to increase the work of women significantly. Indeed, one household in Kajaki indicated that it employed a local widow purely to assist in the preparation of food during the opium poppy harvest.

7. The technical knowledge of itinerant harvesters

The exact timing of the opium poppy harvest is determined by the variety of the opium poppy cultivated, the time of sowing and most importantly climatic conditions in the district. Consequently, the timing of the harvest in any one district may differ by a number of days from one year to the next. For instance, the harvest in Nawzad was reported to begin ten days earlier in 1999 than it had in the previous year due to particularly warm weather.

For those respondents who had worked as itinerant harvesters before, their past experience of working in different opium producing districts was used to determine when the opium poppy harvest would begin in each of the districts they intended to work. Those respondents that were working as itinerant harvesters for the first time relied on the information of family and friends. Indeed, to determine the exact time of the harvest in any particular district, traders and relatives working in the district on a long term or seasonal basis, were the main sources of information cited by respondents.

Given the short duration of the opium poppy harvest in any one area, landowners are keen to identify skilled itinerant harvesters. Indeed, key informants suggest that the landowner prefers to select experienced lancers and will recruit itinerant harvesters� that have worked on his land before, if they are available. Fieldwork revealed that this selection criteria can result in inexperienced labourers not finding work unless someone is willing to vouch for them and provide training. Most respondents reported that they had learnt how to lance and collect opium from either their relatives or friends. For those who came from opium producing districts, their first experience of harvesting opium poppy was in their own district and generally on their own land under the tuition of their relatives. Those respondents that did not come from opium producing districts typically conducted their first harvest in Helmand.

Generally, those travelling long distances to work on the opium harvest were found to work in groups. Those travelling from either Ghor, Oruzgan or the refugee camps in Balochistan were rarely found to be working individually. Key informants reported that these groups were often formed in local mosques and consisted of between 5 and 20 people. According to respondents the age of the members of each group ranged from 10 to 55. Respondents reported that those within the group who had previously worked as itinerant harvesters provided training in the lancing and collection of opium for those who were inexperienced.

Indeed, respondents reported that the identification of mature opium poppy capsules and incising the capsule appropriately, required some experience to ensure that the maximum yields were obtained. For instance, lancing opium capsules prior to full maturation is thought to significantly effect the final yield. Consequently, to identify mature capsules, each capsule is tested by the harvester by squeezing them between thumb and forefinger prior to lancing. To the inexperienced the difference between a mature and an immature capsule would appear negligible.

The depth of the incision during each lance is also thought to significantly effect 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, if the incision is too shallow and the flow of the latex will be constrained. However, the membrane of the capsule toughens as it matures over the period of the harvest. Given that the duration of the harvest may be from 15-20 days, with as many as six lances, deeper incisions have to be made to extract the opium during the latter stages of the harvest. Consequently, as many as three different lancing instruments, known as neshtars, each with different length blades, are used by experienced harvesters in the Helmand area.

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16/ The male of this elderly couple was interviewed during earlier fieldwork in 1998 and revealed that due to their age and restrictions on the mobility of women they limited their work as itinerant harvesters to a very localised area in which they had worked for a number of years.