Yunnan's Green Anti-drug Project

In order to cut off the source of drugs, since the 1990s Yunnan Province has cooperated with neighboring governments and local organizations to implement an alternative cultivation plan for 30,000 hectares of erstwhile poppy fields. It was well received by the international community, and honored as a "Green Anti-drug Project."

Since implementation of the project, Yunnan has spent 500 million yuan on supplying 100 tons of improved grains and industrial crop seeds and one million economic wood seedlings to Myanmar and Laos. Three thousand scientific and technological personnel have been sent to help farmers in the Golden Triangle grow rice, sugarc ane, rubber, fruits and vegetables.

Hybrid rice, sugarcane, rubber and tea cover 13,000 hectares of Special Region No. 1 and No. 4 of Myanmar's Shan State, Laos's Phongsaly, Luangnamtha, and Oudomxay -- all former poppy areas. Statistics show that poppy-growing areas have been reduced by 24 percent and 15 percent in Myanmar and Laos respectively. Yunnan Province provides various means for farmers to make a living, including capital and technological support, agricultural aid, infrastructure construction and tourism resource development. With these alternatives, farmers don't have to rely on poppy cultivation.