.c The Associated Press

SHINWAR, Afghanistan (AP) Pulling on the wispy strands of his gray beard,
the wizened farmer mutters the only English word he knows opium and vows
that no one, not Afghanistan's Taliban religious rulers, not the United
Nations, will stop him from growing it.

Haji Saif Rahman says his father and his grandfather harvested the bloodred
poppies that make heroin before him, and his grandchildren surely will do the
same.

``What else should we do?'' he asked, pointing his trembling hand in
emphasis. ``There's no work. There's no business. There's not enough water
and there's not enough land. It's our duty to grow it.''

After months of pressure by the United Nations and Western countries, the
Taliban have prohibited the cultivation of opium poppies, which are grown by
200,000 families in this warshattered country.

The ban, hinted at last month in a national radio announcement and elaborated
on in interviews with Taliban leaders, comes as the United Nations plans a
project to find alternatives to producing opium in southern Afghanistan and
in the rugged, rocky soil of the eastern district of Shinwar.

The end of the opium harvest would have farreaching effects on the trade of
heroin, which has become a mounting problem in parts of the United States and
Europe. Afghanistan produces twofifths of the world's supply and its borders
are preeminent trafficking routes, according to the U.N. Drug Control
Program.

But farmers like Rahman dare anyone to make them stop growing the lucrative
crop. Opium poppies are planted on one of every 100 acres of Afghanistan's
arable land.

Farmers around Shinwar, a flat landscape of poor, dry soil near the Pakistani
border, insist that crops like wheat and corn don't grow well here. Even if
they did, they say, the money wouldn't be the same as what they earn from a
few acres of opium poppies.

Kalender Khan, a 29yearold farmer whose hands were encrusted with mud from
repairing a crumbling wall that borders his plot of land, says he can make
$100 on his opium harvest.

That's eight times what he would make growing corn. And it's a fortune in a
country where wrecked villages inhabited only by overturned tanks and
burnedout trucks testify to nearly 20 years of fighting.

The Taliban army took control of the capital, Kabul, a year ago and controls
eight of the 10 provinces where opium poppies are grown.

This year, Afghanistan produced a record 2,800 tons of opium a 25 percent
increase over 1996, the U.N. Drug Control Program said Thursday. Its opium
output surpassed the combined production of the ``Golden Triangle,'' the
jungle region of Burma, Laos and Thailand, it said.

Ninetysix percent of the opium coming out of Afghanistan is grown in areas
under Taliban control. Most of the drug makes its way to Europe and the
United States.

The Taliban are known to levy a 10 percent tax on the crops. That has led to
charges from neighboring Iran that the Taliban, despite their strict brand of
Islam, profit handsomely from the drug trade.

Taliban leaders deny the charge, but their slowness in declaring opium
illegal has left lingering doubts. Last month's radio address referred only
to heroin implying opium poppies, the raw materials, also were banned, but
not saying so explicitly.

``The policy of the Islamic movement of the Taliban is that drugs are
prohibited,'' said Mullah Abbas, a member of the leadership in Kabul.
``Growing opium is against Islam.''

But he, like other government officials, sympathizes with the farmers.
Without substantial help from the United Nations and Western countries, the
ban never will be implemented, he said.

``We need a lot of help from the world in fighting opium,'' said Abbas, his
brown worry beads running through his right hand.

Some officials say it will take more than help from the West.

Mir Najibullah Shams, the secretarygeneral of the State High Commission for
Drug Control, says nothing will be done about opium until there is peace in
Afghanistan, a dim prospect right now. The regime the Taliban ousted nearly a
year ago continues to fight to regain power.

``The government can't even give me my salary,'' he said in his rundown
office. ``How can it give money to 200,000 (opiumgrowing) families?''

``The farmers know it is against Islamic law, it is against the will of God,
but what should they do?'' he asked. ``They have no money, no equipment, no
facilities. They have to grow opium.''

In November, the U.N. Drug Control Program will try to alleviate those
conditions through a threeyear, $7 million project. With the ban in place,
the program will improve irrigation, provide better seeds, help with
marketing and set up small processing plants for fruit as a way of providing
an alternative to opium.

Initially, the project will only be in Shinwar and three districts in the
south, said Giovanni Quaglia, director of the U.N. program's regional office
in Islamabad, Pakistan.

The farmers in Shinwar said they would welcome any help, but they made clear
their skepticism.

``I've heard promises before,'' said Faisal Haq, a farmer with 10 children.
``But right now, there's only one way to make money.''

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