Enhance Regional Cooperation, Promote Substitution Development
--- Experience from implementing in Myanmar the projects of the China National Committee for Narcotics Control and Yunnan Green Project on Narcotics Control
Mr. Tong Yuexuan, General Manager of
Kunming Jili Economic and Trade Development Co., Ltd., and
Yunnan Weikai Industrial Co., Ltd.
We have two enterprises carrying out substitution development projects outside Yunnan, namely the Kunming Jili Economic and Trade Development Co., Ltd. and Yunnan Weikai Industrial Co., Ltd. Of them, the former is in charge of conducting substitution planting in Myanmar’s Shan State (Kokang) First Special Zone and the latter in southern parts of Myanmar’s Shan State Second Special Zone.
I. Substitution development project in Myanmar’s Shan State (Kokang) First Special Zone
Name of project: Substitution development project sponsored by the China National Committee for Narcotics Control as assistance to Myanmar Government
Site of implementation: Myanmar’s Shan State (Kokang) First Special Zone
Unit in charge: Office of the China National Committee for Narcotics Control
Implementing unit: Kunming Jili Economic and Trade Development Co., Ltd.
Technical support from: Yunnan Provincial Academy of Agricultural Science
Agricultural Bureau of Gengma County, Lincang District, Yunnan Province
Source of fund: China National Committee for Narcotics Control
Kokang is located at the juncture of southwest Yunnan and northeast Myanmar, bordering on Yunnan’s Zhenkang and Gengma counties and involving a population of about 140,000.
Before 2000, Kokang district boasted an annual poppy planting area of about 17,000 acres and its economy was mostly dependent on drug production, which caused serious harm to China and international community. Since 2000, with the endeavor of the international community and the great support of the Chinese Government, some enterprises from Yunnan and other places have begun to conduct substitution planting in Myanmar’s Shan State (Kokang) First Special Zone. In 2002, the government of the zone decided to ban poppy planting within its domain and officially included substitution planting in its agenda of developing law-abiding economies. However, due to reasons in climate condition and farming technologies, some farmers who adopted substitutive crops made little gains and in the end, about one third (45,000) of the total population in the zone wanted for grain. Under such condition, the Kunming Jili Economic and Trade Development Co., Ltd. began to implement the China-sponsored substitution development projects for assisting Myanmar.
With fertile land, good ecological environment, and a climate condition similar to that in south Yunnan, the former poppy-planting areas within Myanmar’s Shan State (Kokang) First Special Zone are suitable for planting grain and cash crops. It is our goal to completely uproot poppy planting in the zone and to facilitate sales of the substitution crops in China-Myanmar frontier areas. It is also our goal to enrich local farmers besides providing them with enough food. To attain the goals, we choose not only traditional crops, but other items (flowers, vegetables, spices, oil crops, tea, rubber, medicinal materials, and so on) as new substitution crops that, though require small investment, show great adaptability, quick result, and good marketability. In this way, farmers in mountainous and semi-mountainous districts in former poppy-planting areas received satisfactory economic income. Judged by market benefit, the grain-plus-cash-crops mode in Myanmar’s Shan State (Kokang) First Special Zone is the ideal mode for substitution development industry.
Since 1990s, the Kunming Jili Economic and Trade Development Co., Ltd. has been engaging in substitution planting in the “golden triangle” area. In March 2000, the company, with the technical support from the Yunnan Provincial Academy of Agricultural Science and the consent of the government of Myanmar’s Shan State (Kokang) First Special Zone, set up in Kokang district an opium substitution demonstration farm that covers over 200 acres of land and involves several experimental crops, including tea, rubber, citronella, mulberry tree, castor-oil plant, peanut, Chinese prickly ash, Taiwan jujube, Taiwan honey pomelo, American orange, Thai four-season citrus, Japanese sweet persimmon and green lemon, chestnut, loquat, plum, pomegranate, and banana, and cultivates pigs, chickens, and fish. The farm has been well equipped with facilities for workers’ daily life, business handling, storage, animal husbandry, and irrigation. Currently, the company has invested over three million RMB yuan to import top varieties of grain and cash crops and to have them planted in over 1,666 acres of land, including 1,000 acres for cash forests, 333 acres for grains, and 333 acres for tea.
In June 2002, responding to the request of the Myanmar Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control and making use of the favorable condition brought about by the overall anti-drug declaration of Myanmar’s Shan State (Kokang) First Special Zone, the China National Narcotics Control Committee initiated the “China-assisted Myanmar Crop Substitution Development Project”, according to which, the Kunming Jili Economic and Trade Development Co., Ltd. is in charge of implementing the Kokang project by receiving 300,000 RMB yuan from the China National Committee for Narcotics Control as the project starting fund. The purpose of the project is to upgrade the basic farming skills of the farmers in the First Special Zone through training on agricultural production technologies given by Chinese enterprises. In this way, the farmers can have different choices in agricultural production, which can eventually eliminate their dependence on poppy planting and promote substitution planting.
In accordance with the Notice on Enforcing Substitution Development Cooperation Projects issued by the China National Committee for Narcotics Control and the gist of the relevant documents of the Yunnan Provincial Committee for Narcotics Control, the Kunming Jili Economic and Trade Development Co., Ltd. organized several specialists from the Yunnan Provincial Academy of Agricultural Science to make an overall inspection over Kokang district’s climate, soil, crops, market, and labor force so as to screen out grain and cash crops suitable for the district. Thanks to the perfect organization and coordination of the Yunnan Provincial Committee for Narcotics Control and the active assistance of the Lincang District Committee for Narcotics Control and the government of Myanmar’s Shan State (Kokang) First Special Zone, the company smoothly fixed and conducted project training and demonstration on technologies concerning grain and cash crops planting. The contents of the four sessions of training cover technologies in planting of several grain and cash crops, including paddy, corn, soybean, potato, pea, broad bean, buckwheat, citronella, vegetables, fruit trees, tea, and rubber trees, and technologies in ground leveling, seedling growing, crop planting, fertilizer applying, and pest killing.
During the four sessions of training that lasted 35 days, specialists trained 340 local farmers by adopting field demonstration as the main method and class lecturing as an assisting measure. Most of the trained farmers used to live on poppy planting. The training and substitution planting have received a relatively satisfactory result, which is seen in the following aspects:
1. There are a lot of trainees from different areas, including farmers from the former poppy-planting areas, agricultural technicians from the Myanmar Central Government, and farmers from Kun Long district (under jurisdiction of Myanmar Government) outside the First Special Zone.
2. The training is highly target-focused and is done by adopting field demonstration as the main method and class lecturing as an assisting measure. The Chinese agricultural specialists personally made field demonstration that received good result and great influence. They gave training and instruction over the entire agricultural production cycle.
3. The training focused on such grain crops as paddy, corn, beans, potato, and buckwheat, and paid attention to some cash crops like rubber, tea, citronella, fruits, and vegetables. The training also covered identification, prevention, and elimination of pests and crop diseases, introduction of function and usage of pesticides, identification of weeds, field management, maintenance of watery manure, and other cultivation technologies.
4. The training spread China’s advanced agricultural science and technology and set up a good market credit for China-made seeds, pesticides, and agricultural chemical products.
5. The training has enlarged and strengthened international community’s influence in narcotics control, acquainted local government and farmers with narcotics’ grave harm and resolution of all human beings in uprooting poppy planting, and showed them Chinese Government’s sincerity in encouraging and helping them to carry out poppy substitution planting and develop law-abiding industries.
After the training, the Chinese side presented Myanmar trainees with 12,500 kilograms of free crop seeds, including 11,000 kilograms of seeds of improved variety of detoxicated potato, 300 kilograms of seeds of improved variety of high quality corn, 600 kilograms of seeds of high quality pea, 400 kilograms of seeds of high quality broad bean, and certain quantity of seeds of high quality hybrid rice and soybean. Our company also donated 200,000 seedlings of citronella and 12 cases of China-made nuisanceless pesticides, with a total value amounting to over 100,000 RMB yuan.
By now, the China-assisted Myanmar Crop Substitution Development Project has received a good result. Nearly 400 farmer households have completely got rid of the dependence on opium economy by planting substitution crops. They not only have enough food for their survival, but earn more than planting poppy. Through them, the project is exerting a greater and greater influence on neighboring farmer households and villages. The letter of thanks, presented to the China National Committee for Narcotics Control and Yunnan Provincial Committee for Narcotics Control in October 2002 by the government of Myanmar’s Shan State (Kokang) First Special Zone, says: “We are grateful for the assistance given to the poppy substitution planting demonstration project in our Shan State (Kokang) First Special Zone by the China National Committee for Narcotics Control. This project focused on grain and cash crops’ planting demonstration by specialists organized jointly by the China Kunming Jili Economic and Trade Development Co., Ltd. and China Yunnan Provincial Academy of Agricultural Science. It is a sensational success in Kokang District. The special zone government regards such demonstration as very useful for local farmers to master grain and cash crops’ planting technologies. We acknowledge that the Chinese Government does mean to help us. We hope the Chinese Government can keep on giving us assistance. We will make active coordination so as to enlarge the training and planting range and eventually, consolidate the banning of poppy planting in Kokang Special Zone.” In November 2002, a Sino-Myanmar poppy substitution planting specialist team headed by Wang Gang, vice secretary general of the China National Committee for Narcotics Control and chief inspector of Myanmar’s national police force paid a visit to Myanmar’s Shan State (Kokang) First Special Zone for inspecting the project’s implementation. The team fully acknowledged and highly valued the project’s achievements.
The Kunming Jili Economic and Trade Development Co., Ltd. has popularized among local farmers the planting of various grain and cash crops in over 1,666 acres of fields, of which, 1,333 acres of the crops have been planted after the training. Depending on the support from the governments, market operation of enterprise, sales of products, and especially on the market opening policies and duty reduction and exemption policies given by the Chinese Government to those substitution planting products, the substitution planting cause has been greatly promoted. There have come into being group-style farm products development enterprises that can guide farmers in work division and production organization in accordance with market demand. In this way, local farmers will enjoy upgraded living standard; the law-abiding economies will eventually substitute drug economy; the enterprises that make investment in substitution development can have a satisfactory economic benefit, which in turn will deepen their participation in the cause.
II. Substitution projects in southern districts of Myanmar’s Shan State Second Special Zone
Name of project: Green Project on Narcotics Control --- planting of fodder crops in substitution of poppy in south Myanmar’s Wanhong District
Unit establishing the project: Yunnan Provincial Science and Technology Department
Undertaking unit: Horticultural Crops Institute under Yunnan Provincial Academy of Agricultural Science
Implementing unit: Yunnan Weikai Industrial Co., Ltd.
No.171 Military Command in south Myanmar’s Shan State Second Special Zone
Site of implementation: Wanhong District of Myanmar’s Shan State Second Special Zone
Source of fund: Yunnan Provincial Science and Technology Department
Yunnan Weikai Industrial Co., Ltd.
Term of cooperation: From July 2003 to July 2005
South Wa is located in the center of the “golden triangle” area at the juncture of Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand. It is under the jurisdiction of the No.171 Military Command of Myanmar’s Shan State Second Special Zone and has a total population of about 200,000.
Before 1996, people in South Wa district made a living on drug planting. After the defeat of Kun Sha, the district began to adopt the idea of substitution development. Now, its major industries include planting, cultivation, processing, textile, building, and mining, involving a total investment of over 300 million RMB yuan. South Wa is now attracting the most investment in the entire “golden triangle” area. Its substitution development projects are under the ideal operational and managerial mode. In addition, receiving the most notable results in drug prohibition, it has been under an economic operation mode generating a benign cycle for the law-abiding economies.
In 1997, the Yunnan Jingxun Industrial Co., Ltd. began to carry out substitution planting in South Wa district. In May 2002, it transferred all of its poppy substitution planting and cultivation projects to the Yunnan Weikai Industrial Co., Ltd. The transferred items included two million longan trees, 800,000 litchi trees, 1.2 million tangerine trees, 100,000 pomelo trees, 100,000 sweetish tart fruit trees, 500,000 mango trees, 250 acres of rubber, 250 acres of oil palm, 666 acres of tea, 33 acres of ponds for farming soft-shelled turtles, and 0.25 acres of paddy fields. After the take-over, the Yunnan Weikai Industrial Co., Ltd. has further enlarged the planting and cultivating scale in South Wa district. It even plans to develop the economic forests with higher benefit (for instance, enlarging rubber tree planting area to 5,000 acres) and push South Wa’s substitution development into a new phase. At present, the company’s orchards in Pachirek, Putaodi, Wanhong, Hui’e, and Mong Ton begin to take shape. In fact, the orchards are of complete facilities (including the modern irrigation system) and under proper management. (The orchards’ relevant personnel have received technical training and the company offers different types of pesticides to the orchards.) Most of the orchards have entered the high-yield period. Each year, South Wa district receives an economic income of over ten million RMB yuan by selling fresh fruits to inland Myanmar and Thailand and dried longan and tea to China.
Myanmar’s Shan State Second Special Zone (often referred to as “Wa State”) is divided into two districts: southern and northern districts. Poppy planting is seen mainly in northern alpine regions. The southern district is actually the Myanmar-Thailand frontier, where is suitable for planting grain and cash crops. After being transferred to southern district, the immigrants find sufficient food for their survival within merely one year time. Realizing that there are no processing and cultivating industries in the locality, which offers no market for converting farmers’ surplus grains into capital, the Yunnan Weikai Industrial Co., Ltd., after its success in substitution development of orchards, tea, and rubber in South Wa, laid stress on farm products’ processing and animal husbandry. In 2003, the Yunnan Provincial Science and Technology Department officially approved the green project on narcotics control and granted some 200,000 RMB yuan as the project supporting fund. This project is jointly implemented by the Yunnan Provincial Academy of Agricultural Science, Yunnan Weikai Industrial Co., Ltd., and No.171 Military Command of Myanmar’s Shan State Second Special Zone. Under the project, a fodder plant will be set up in Myanmar’s Pachirek as a base for local farmers to plant fodder crops and develop law-abiding economies.
The Yunnan Weikai Industrial Co., Ltd. has cooperated with Myanmar side to import high quality corn and soybean varieties. It has helped immigrant farmers to plant 800 acres of fodder corn and 833 acres of soybean, which yield 5,000 tons of corn and 500 tons of soybeans annually. Meanwhile, the two parties cooperated to establish pig farm, chicken farm, aquafarm, and the “Pachirek Development Fodder Plant” in Kengtung, and Pachirek and Wanhong in southern districts of Myanmar’s Shan State Second Special Zone.
The Pachirek Fodder Plant involves a total investment of eight million RMB yuan and is designed to produce 15,000 tons of fodder annually. Half of the raw materials come from the fodder crops planted by the immigrant farmers. The fodder crops’ planting plan can be adjusted in accordance with the cultivation plan of the pig farm, chicken farm, and aquafarm; and so the fodder plant can always be supplied with sufficient raw materials. Of the total investment of eight million RMB yuan made by both parties, five million RMB yuan goes to fixed assets, including 2.5 million RMB yuan for infrastructure facilities and the other half for mechanic equipment, and three million RMB yuan serves as circulating fund for purchasing raw materials and feed additives, paying wages to local workers, buying fertilizers and pesticides for local farmers, and launching technical training for the farmers.
The Pachirek Fodder Plant has been officially put into operation in June 2003. The pig farm, chicken farm, and aquafarm are under smooth development and become larger and larger in size. The farmers earn stable income by planting fodder crops. With fodder processing industry bringing along substitution planting, there comes the economic “win-win” result for both enterprise and farmers and a brand new substitution development mode. This lays a solid foundation for thoroughly uprooting poppy planting in Myanmar’s Shan State Second Special Zone and promoting local economy’s sustainable development with new industries.
III. Experience
1. Drug issue somewhat smacks of political, military, diplomatic, and ethnical significance. However, it is, in nature, an economic issue, and therefore should be handled by economic means. The traditional poppy planting area, the “golden triangle”, had for many times raised the question to the world: to be planting poppy, or not to be. Carrying out substitution planting in the “golden triangle” area for a long period, we have raised our own question: “How can local people make a living if poppy planting is totally banned in a short period but there is no necessary substitution and follow-up measures?” Because of historical reasons, the local poppy growers have lived on opium production for generations and they have been degenerated in production skills. They almost know nothing about the planting of other grain and cash crops. Some places in Myanmar have witnessed replanting of poppy after the banning, but no one should be blamed for this except the lack of a means of life for local people. From this point of view, we emphasize that the most important thing is to help the farmers to survive after uprooting their poppy. This is one of the most successful experiences obtained from poppy substitution development project by the relevant departments and enterprises of Yunnan Province.
2. From our practice we know that no district in the “golden triangle” area can rely on simply one or two crop varieties to substitute poppy. At the same time, we cannot act blindly in popularization by ignoring local situations. We must seek varieties that are suitable for local soil and climate and recommend them to local farmers after their experimental planting succeeds. We must also consider whether or not the chosen varieties meet local farmer’s planting and management standards, let alone their marketability. Otherwise, no variety should be called a good variety for local farmers. Remember, a wrong variety can not only bring about poor economic result, but affect and harm farmers’ enthusiasm for substitution planting.
3. Several years’ practice has shown that the substitution development outside Yunnan is a systematic engineering that depends not only on planting, but also on industry, commerce, farming, forestry, animal husbandry, side-line production, fishery, infrastructure facilities, cultural education, medical health care, and ethnical tourism. Only by developing all those sectors can we expect a reduction or even an annihilation of drug in the “golden triangle” area. From this point of view, substitution development should not only be listed among agricultural projects, but also be regarded as a component of local economy for an overall arrangement. More preferential policies should also be given to the relevant processed products for their import and export.
4. An enterprise carrying out substitution development project in the “golden triangle” area has to rely on supports from the Chinese Central Government and Yunnan Provincial Government and its subordinated departments. Yunnan Province is gradually deepening its work in substitution development in other countries. The Chinese Central Government has also given support and favor to the work in policy and other aspects. For example, the cash crops for substitution planting in Yunnan’s frontier area are given duty-free policy for their import and export and the Central Government authorizes Yunnan Province to work out the detailed rules for the policy’s implementation and management. Yunnan Provincial Government set up under the committee for narcotics control a substitution project management office, which is responsible for coordinating, guiding, and managing the whole province’s substitution development work in foreign country. The Chinese Central Government and Yunnan Provincial Government and some of its departments have appropriated special funds to support the project. All these moves have greatly pushed forward the substitution development work of Yunnan in foreign country and offered policy foundation and theoretical guidance to enterprises for their practice in transnational and trans-regional economic and trade cooperation.
5. In addition, the substitution development project cannot be done in the “golden triangle” area without the coordination and support from the local governments. In 1990s when Yunnan’s enterprises and frontier prefectures began to carry out substitution planting in foreign countries, they focused on offering enough food to local poppy growers. Now, however, local people ask for extra income from substitution project. In order to find market for their surplus products, the substitution work can no longer be confined to planting industry. It should extend to other trades and industries. In other words, the substitution planting should evolve into substitution development and become a systematic engineering. To implement the substitution development, Chinese funds, technologies, industrial products, and scientific technicians will enter those countries and districts in the “golden triangle” area, and on the other hand, local substitution products will enter Chinese market. These moves will surely get entangled with many policies and governmental behaviors of all concerned countries on customs, taxation, finance, and labor force. By now, the Chinese Central Government has given Yunnan Province many preferential policies. For example, the substitution products produced by Yunnan’s enterprises in the “golden triangle” area can enter Chinese market duty free. Those substitution products produced by Sino-foreign joint ventures in the area can also enjoy the corresponding preferential policies. However, the substitution products produced jointly by a Chinese enterprise and a certain district or a certain enterprise in the “golden triangle” area are facing policy restriction in the corresponding country. For enterprises, the greatest problem now lies in market. For example, the Kunming Jili Economic and Trade Development Co., Ltd. has developed over 333 acres of tea as one of its major substitution products. Since our tea markets are mainly in China and Myanmar, we expect to sell high quality tea to China and smashed black tea to Myanmar. In entering Chinese market, we enjoy duty-free policy and preferential policy in value-added tax given by the Chinese Government. But we cannot sell the smashed black tea to Myanmar due to the ambiguity of Myanmar’s relevant policies. We literally know nothing about how to make marketing application in Myanmar. We therefore hope the Myanmar Government can open its domestic market to substitution products, because this is also good for promoting Myanmar’s economic development.
6. It is a right thing to further strengthen bilateral cooperation between local district and enterprise while carrying out multilateral international cooperation for substitution development. Our decade-long experience shows that the understanding and attitude of the leaders of the countries and districts in the “golden triangle” area are decisive for the success of the drug substitution project. International assistance and help from other countries should be granted by local authorities before they can play a role. It is therefore a must to strengthen conference and contact between the involved parties for developing their mutual trust and reaching a material cooperation. Cooperation between local district and enterprise can be the most effective working mode in substitution development. Both the cooperation between Yunnan’s frontier district and Myanmar’s Shan State Eastern Fourth Special Zone and between Yunnan’s enterprises and southern districts of Myanmar’s Shan State Second Special Zone has received satisfactory results. What should be emphasized here is that during bilateral or multilateral substitution development, the host country of poppy planting should shoulder a special responsibility in promoting substitution development and eliminating drug’s harm to human being. It should list drug substitution development into its national and regional construction development plan and make reasonable arrangement for it in such aspects as policy, project, market, and funds. It should also welcome international cooperation and give active coordination. The other side of the cooperation and its personnel should in turn respect the host country’s territorial sovereignty and honor its laws and ethnical customs. It is expectable that friendship between countries can be enhanced through cooperative drug prohibition and substitution development.
