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Myanmar has long been one of the world's largest producers of illicit opium. The period between the late 1980s and 1996 witnessed steadily increasing production figures, with the annual average peaking at 1,600 metric tonnes. However, Afghanistan's opium production grew even faster during this time and the country replaced Myanmar as the world's largest producer in 1991.
Since the 1996 peak, opium poppy cultivation has declined progressively in Myanmar, a result of increased eradication and control efforts by both the central Government and local authorities. In 2005, the area under cultivation stood at 32,800 hectares - a decline of 80% since 1996. The country's potential production for 2005 was 312 metric tonnes - 82% less than in 1996.
June 2005 marked the coming into force of a ban instigated by local authorities that demanded farmers to stop opium cultivation throughout Wa Special Region 2. A rapid assessment conducted by UNODC in October 2005 indicated that the ban had been successful and no opium cultivation was to be found in the surveyed areas.
Traditionally, however, more than 90% of opium cultivation in Myanmar, grown and harvested during the September to March dry season, has taken place in the mountainous areas of the Shan State. Cultivation extends through almost its entire length, running along the Chinese border, south to Laos PDR and the Thai border. Ethnic minority groups operating in autonomous administrative entities - the so-called "Special Regions" - govern large parts of this area. The long and porous border with Thailand, Lao PDR and China facilitates the illicit trafficking of opium produced in Myanmar, either in its original form or refined into heroin, both of which find their way onto the Southeast Asian and global markets.
As is the case in most of the world's illicit drug producing states, opium cultivation in Myanmar is rooted in poverty. In 2005, for example 82% of poppy farmers reported growing the crop to offset rice shortages. Opium is a cash crop, used to buy food, clothing and medicine for cultivating families. The rapid assessment conducted in October 2005 showed that without opium cultivation the annual income of farmers would decline to 31 percent of that generated in the same year.
While the cessation of opium cultivation is vital to the pursuit of a drug-free Myanmar subsequent support is required for these already vulnerable groups who rely upon the crop to ensure their food security. UNODC currently implements two projects that are producing accurate and useful data on the cultivation of illicit opium and the creation of conditions under which opium bans will have a minimal adverse effect on former opium farming households.
The Wa project employs a multi-sectoral approach, focussing on education, health care, infrastructure and livelihood development to improve food security and provide basic needs in the target areas. Using a community-based methodology, the project aims to create the conditions for a sustainable and humanitarian opium reduction by decreasing farmers' dependency on its cultivation.
Alongside the Wa project, a broad partnership, known as the Kokang and Wa Initiative (KOWI), was set up in March 2003. Central to KOWI's mandate is the aim of providing for the basic needs of poor farmers and their families in the Kokang and Wa regions of the Shan State to live in dignity without their primary income being traditionally derived from opium cultivation. The partnership includes UN agencies, local organisations and INGOs that provide pre- and post-emergency aid to communities in the two regions in order to help local populations cope with the imposition of opium bans. In the Kokang, a total ban went into effect in 2003 and a similar ban was instigated in the Wa in 2005.
To support and provide substantive reliable information to these initiatives, the Illicit Crop Monitoring Programme (ICMP) assists member states in producing internationally comparable data on the cultivation of illicit crops. In Myanmar, the ICMP conducts an annual opium survey to measure changes in the levels and patterns of opium cultivation and, in turn, guide UNODC strategies in the country.
For more information on these projects:
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