Ezatullah Latifi: Poppy fast becoming major crop of Afghanistan
By Ezatullah Latifi  The Institute for War & Peace Reporting
An Afghan man uses opium in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Nov.
20, 2012. Afghan efforts to stamp out opium poppy cultivation
are failing because of high prices for the illicit crop, pushing
farmers to grow 18 percent more in 2012 than last year, the U.N.
said in a report released Tuesday.   Enlarge photo»  TARIN KOWT,
Afghanistan — Uruzgan province in central Afghanistan is fast
becoming a major source of opium in the country. Both the
Taliban and the commander of a private local militia appear to
be reaping enormous profits from growing the illegal crop.  And
there doesn't seem to be anything the local authorities can do
about it.  Hajji Abdul Habib is a farmer from Shah Zafar village
in the Darafshan Valley, northeast of the main provincial town
of Tarin Kowt, and has been growing poppy for years.  "I harvest
12 kilograms of opium from one acre of land annually, and I sell
it at $20