Poppy Season in Uruzgan
By AHMED DURANI
Published: April 26th, 2010
- TARINKOT, AFGHANISTAN: A few days ago I went to visit the countryside around Uruzgan’s provincial capital. Less than one kilometer away from Tarinkot, along the same river that passes through the city, I saw several poppy fields. My friends from Uruzgan told me that nobody can eradicate these opium poppies, because all the farmers here are heavily armed and they are ready to put up a fight against whomever enters their fields. One of my friends knew some of the farmers, and we were traveling with a small militia of seven for our own security, so we were safe. Click on the photo to view this photo essay.
- TARINKOT, AFGHANISTAN: It is now poppy season in Uruzgan. These plants will soon be ready to harvest. A farmer explained to me the process in the following words: “I take a blade and make a small incision on the ball-like part of the plant. A white resin begins to seep out. That’s the opium. Later it becomes brown but at first it’s white. It takes a long time for all the resin to come out so I don’t collect it right away. Instead I move on to the next plant and make an incision on that one too. Then I move on to the next one and so on. After I am done making incisions on all the plants I go back to the first one and start collecting the resin, one plant at a time.”
- TARINKOT, AFGHANISTAN: The farmers did not allow me to photograph them but allowed me to walk around their field freely. Later we sat down and had a picnic together. I tried to ask them about their relations with the Taliban but I sensed they did not want to talk about it so I quickly changed the subject to something not so controversial. We talked about the weather and nature. A couple of hours later my friends and I returned to town.
- TARINKOT, AFGHANISTAN: Tarinkot is a small city. Actually, it looks more like a large village. The roads are not paved and there are not many people in the street, because the security situation is very precarious. Almost every day the Taliban shoot someone or set off a bomb. In this picture, you can see the bullet holes and the shrapnel marks in the walls of a house. The name of this street is Tarbara Kosa.