Depend on Scientific Advantage and Explore New Mechanism for Alternative Development

The Science & Technology Department of Yunnan Province

Since 1990s, under the arrangements of Yunnan Drug Abuse Control Commission, with the support from Ministry of Science and Technology and cooperation of interrelated departments of Yunnan province, the Science & Technology department of Yunnan Province advocated and implemented the alternative development project for opium poppy cultivation by organizing the scientific and technological agencies, agricultural agencies, enterprises of some counties of Yunnan province contiguous to the north part of Myanmar and relevant departments and national armed forces of bordering countries. The alternative development project was implemented in comply with the principles of governmental support, enterprise run, equity and negotiation. The gradual progress of alternative development project achieved significant results, and this project was recognized as a successful one, and was highly praised as “Green Drug Control Project”.

Alternative development for opium poppy cultivation that we assisted the northern Myanmar is a major part of this project. Through financial or technological aids, we made significant efforts on promoting the economic development of opium poppy cultivation area of the north Myanmar, improved the production modes and livelihoods of local ethnic people, thus reduced the production of drug. To thoroughly study the experiences and issues in the alternative development project, and explore new mechanism of international cooperation under new circumstances, are two important tasks for both Ministry of Science and Technology and scientific administrations of Yunnan province.

1 Effect gained in alternative cultivation for opium poppy

Yunnan province is coterminous with Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar, with a borderline of 4060 km, and is contiguous to “Golden Triangle”, the largest production area of opium poppy, opium and heroin. The north Myanmar is one of the major cultivation areas of opium poppy in the world, and it is an important component part of drug source of “Golden Triangle”. Along with the worldwide drug expansion and illegal cross-border trade, drugs did a great harm on our country. Owning to the special geological location, the drug control in Yunnan province was a hard and complicated struggle, and the task was very arduous and heavy as well. In order to eradicate the detrimental drug, Yunnan province conducts active cooperation with international societies on drug control, the struggle towards drug criminal, assisting in eradicating drug source and alternative development for opium poppy were combined under the efforts of different governmental administrations.

1.1 Drive Alternative cultivation through experiment and demonstration

Since 1995, the Science & Technology Department of Yunnan Province formulated projects to support the activities in joint effort in alternative development project in north Myanmar. A series of projects such as “Experiment and Demonstration of High-yield Hybrid Rice and Sugarcane” and “Experiment and Demonstration of Ecological Agriculture” were developed in north Myanmar with the objectives of clamping down the cultivation of opium poppy at these areas. These projects absorbed the model of getting rich depend on agricultural development, which was applied in mountain areas of Yunnan province. China donated seedlings, cultivation techniques, and provided some training. Myanmar provided land and labor. The projects were implemented according to the following procedures, namely experiment, demonstration, model establishment, extension and massive production.

1.2 Mobilize scientific and agricultural agencies, and provide technical aids

During the past decade, along the borderline of China and Myanmar, we totally supported 12 projects at these areas, with a total financial support of 2,350,000 RMB yuan, our action also encourage the financial input of local government and enterprises. The project was implemented by some scientific institutions from the border areas of Yunnan province. With the support of department of drug control and public safety, we took advantage of the agricultural technology that we have, and provided Myanmar elite crop seeds and technology. Our scientific professional delivered on-site guidance, so as to help the Myanmar side improve the cultivation of alternative crops. Those projects shared the common characteristics of cooperation and participation. Projects were carried out at almost all border areas between Yunnan province and the north part of Myanmar, namely Xishuangbanna, Simao, Lincang, Baoshan and Dehong. Some projects have expanded to the Wanhong areas of Myanmar.

1.3 Assist local economic development by taking enterprise as leading unit

It is favorable to take enterprise as the leading unit of alternative development project since then the project can be combined with the market, furthermore, more funds for development can be raised with the participation of enterprises. The Xigu Corporation of Xishuangbanna raised 3,000,000 RMB yuan, which ensured the smooth implementaston of the project “Sino-Myanmar Tropical Fruit Cultivation Demonstration Alternative to Opium poppy ”, which was implemented at fourth special zone located at east of Danbang of Myanmar, the technical measures were favorably implemented. It is estimated that the fresh fruit yield in 2004 can be as high as 300 to 400 ton, with the production value of 2,000,000 RMB yuan. Yunnan Hongyu Group Corp. and Yunnan Lubao Industry Development Ltd. raised 1,320,000 RMB yuan and developed the demonstration base of banana of 500 mu at Wabang Pengming of Myanmar, this project encourage the 2,000 households immigrated from the opium poppy cultivation region at Wanghong to cultivate longan. At present, the Chinese side is planning to establish a longan-processing plant at Wanghong region.

Under the help of the Chinese side, the opium poppy cultivated area of contiguous countries decreased to different extends. The opium poppy cultivation forbidden at the first and the second special zone of Keqinbang, and at the first and the fourth special zone of Danbang of Myanmar was basically realized. The implementation of these projects promote the progress of civilization at these adjacent areas, it was found that the tradition of opium poppy cultivation of these areas are changing, during the past few years, a lot of villagers abandoned opium poppy cultivation and immigrate to the basin area to cultivate cash crops. Gradually, they are developing their economy through legal activities.

2 Significance of alternative development

Alternative development for opium poppy cultivation has been regarded as an important option to control drug, which can significantly decrease the production and damage of drug. Science and technology are playing a more and more important role in the alternative development.

According to an incomplete statistics, Yunnan province has provided more than 90 tons crop seeds and 300,000 seedlings of all kind free of charge or at low rice to neighboring counties before the end of 2003, with an aim to promote their development of alternative industries. Moreover, 3000 person times of professionals and technicians has been dispatched to those counties to provide scientific and technical aids, and more than 400 persons from the neighboring countries have received technical training.  With their aids, the total plantation areas of hybrid rice, sugarcane, rubber and other cash crops is up to 13300 ha.

Still, alternative development projects are facing a lot of issues, such as the selection of agricultural crop species, establishing the system of production and marketing, achieving the sustainable development of industry. Sole cultivation can not satisfy the requirement of development, it is necessary to promote alternative development thoroughly from different aspects.

In 1990, alternative development was defined by United Nations International Drug Control Programme as:

A process to prevent and eliminate the illicit cultivation of plants containing narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances through specifically designed rural development measures in the context of sustained national economic growth and sustainable development efforts in countries taking action against drugs.

At United Nations General Assembly "Drug Summit" in 1998, the importance of combining alternative development plan and law enforcement was emphasized. During the course of alternative development, the relevant law enforcement should be carried out to eliminate opium, drug traffickers should be strictly punished. Moreover, the countries, local government and people of narcotic plants should actively undertake the liability of cultivation forbidden, and actively participate in the implementation of alternative projects.

3 Explore new mechanism of alternative development under new circumstances

In order to prevent opium poppy cultivation of “Golden Triangle”, to promote the drug control of international society, and to consolidate the achievement and influence of alternative development, Yunnan province will continuously make every effort to implement the series project of “Drug Control Green Engineering”. For achieving those objectives, we need the continuous support from Ministry of Science and Technology.

Yunnan province ourselves are facing very arduous task of poverty alleviation at rural areas. Still, for the health of all human, for the peace of whole world, Yunnan people will make unremitting effort on alternative development of those contiguous countries and regions. On the other side, the central government of alternative development located countries should set up preferable conditions for marketing the products of alternative development projects. Local government and enterprises should also take their responsibility to explore industry policies that are suitable for their specific regions, and should strive for more support from international society. The development of local people are the key point, once the alternative development project achieved the real effect, more and more local people will abandon the cultivation of opium poppy.

3.1 Existing problems

3.1.1  Low cooperation level, lack of stable and sustainable mechanism for both international and regional cooperation

The stable and sustainable cooperation mechanism of alternative development Yunnan assisted especially financial input mechanism has not been established. The border areas of Yunnan province, Myanmar, Laos are undeveloped areas at a low economic level. Within the Chinese side, from Menghai county of Xishuangbanna prefecture to Gongshan county of Nujiang prefecture, there are 15 poor counties, the adjacent regions are even poorer. The implementation of alternative development is lack of financial support, and it is difficult to continue these projects only depending on the effort of local government and poor county.

3.1.2  Lack of overall plan

Alternative development of a region is a systematic engineering with multiple factors including political, economic, scientific, cultural, social and ecological, furthermore, the alternative development project has more than one objective, in-depth study and careful plan are all needed. The implementation of alternative development project Yunnan province assisted was basically planned and implemented by local government and enterprises. Using this method, the local government is mobilized. All the available resources including production resource, scientific resource and labor resource are utilized. The project was started within short period of time, the alternative cultivation for opium poppy and food self supply were solved. Different experiences and lessons on alternative development were accumulated. However, there is some failure activities in those alternative development projects owing to the shortage of preferable plan. A big sequent problem is the marketing of the products, and economic benefits cannot be achieved, some projects even suffered from failure. Therefore, further study and throughout plan are very important for alternative development.

3.2 Principles to be followed

3.2.1 Integrated development

In those opium poppy planting areas, alternative development should be comprehensively planned by taking the cultivation of alternative crops, infrastructure, trade and investment, tourism, environmental protection, and human resources development into consideration. Meanwhile, the development of foreign-orientated economy of Yunnan province, even the southwest region of China, should be subject of comprehensive planning. Based on the principle of highlighting advantage and averting weakness, and complementarities on advantages, the social and economic development of drug-source areas can be greatly promoted through regional economic and technical cooperation.

3.2.2 Market orientation

At the very beginning of Yunnan province assist adjacent areas, our focus is the food self supply issue of local people, the crops developed in these projects are almost the same as adjacent counties of our province. The investigation and study on market are quite limited, under this circumstance, after the food self supply was realized, there are still some surplus agricultural products, which increase the pressure on market. Therefore, while assisting the alternative development projects, more attention should be paid on market, especially market’s basic role on allocation of different resources, gradually develop local special economy and preferable industries with resources and potential market.

3.2.3 Sustainable development

The opium poppy cultivation of these countries and regions contiguous to Yunnan province has been lasted for more than one hundred years, very complicated drug economy has been existed for quite long time. The meaning of alternative development is far from replacing opium poppy by another crop, it is however a significant change of both production and living. According to the United Nations International Drug Control Programme’s definition, alternative development is characterized by increasing the income of local people through sustained measures, with the objectives of maintain and increase the living level of rural people. It is suggested to select variable development projects with different production cycle. The deterioration of resources and ecological environment should be avoided, and the principle of sustainable development should be strictly followed.

3.2.4 Reliance on science and technology

Most local people at opium poppy cultivation areas are low educated, they are short of modern agricultural production skills, which is a big barrage for alternative development. It is therefore necessary to strengthen technical training for local people, to establish service system for extending agricultural technology, to adjust the agricultural cultivation structure, and to increase yield and benefit by depending more on science and technology.

3.3 Establish mechanism for international and national cooperation to promote the alternative development

Exploring and establishing cooperation mechanism at both international and national level is a very important measure in promoting alternative development. The efforts of the following four aspects can be made at the level of international cooperation. Firstly, we suggest that the United Nations absorb the alternative development of “Golden Triangle” into the global drug control plan, and take “Golden Triangle” as a key and demonstration area for alternative development. We expect that the United Nations provide some financial support to alternative development at these areas, consider the commitment of China and Yunna province of China on assisting “Golden Triangle” in alternative development project, take China esp. Yunnan province of China as the main supporting point, arrange some alternative development project, and provide funds. Secondly, we suggest that Asian Development Bank include the alternative development of “Golden Triangle” region into the economic cooperation mechanism of Greater Mekong Subregion. We suggest that our government actively advocate Asian Development Bank establish coordinating institution and mechanism of alternative development under the framework of economic cooperation of Greater Mekong Subregion, propose and organize the implementation of preferable projects for alternative development and provide with financial support. We expect that the alternative development projects Yunnan assisted the north Myanmar and the north Laos can be established as Asian Development Bank’s comprehensive demonstration project of alternative development at “Golden Triangle” region, and provide Yunnan province with necessary funds for the implementation of those alternative development projects.The third aspect is bilateral and multilateral international cooperation on drug control alternative development. We suggest that National Narcotics Control Commission of China conduct in-depth and specific discussions on measures and mechanisms of alternative development with the government of Myanmar, Laos on the basis of Beijing Declaration. A declaration passed on ministerial meeting attended by ministers in charge of drug control from China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia in august, 2001. Action towards the alternative development projects should be taken as soon as possible. The fourth aspect we suggest is the principles of depoliticalizations and non-discrimination should be actively advocated, promote the international society differentiate political system and drug control cooperation. More efforts should be made to absorb more and more countries and international organizations into the alternative development project of Myanmar and Laos.