by Abdul Haleem, Manan Arghand
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, July 15 (Xinhua) -- "I am delighted to embark on this new journey of producing grapes to sell to make a living for my family rather than having to produce poppy plants for the drug trade," Ajab Khan, a farmer in the southern Kandahar province, told Xinhua.
While cleaning and packing his produce into cartons, Khan said he was delighted that the improving security situation in Afghanistan had paved the way for him and other villagers to leave the nefarious poppy trade and move into a legitimate, non-lethal and positive agricultural industry that is unconnected to militant groups profiteering off the lucrative drug trade.
"Thank God that today I am supplying grapes to the market instead of poppies as I have been doing in the past," the jubilant Khan told Xinhua.
A resident of Panjwai district, a former Taliban stronghold in Kandahar, the 55-year-old farmer said in the past he had routinely cultivated poppies to earn a living but this year, for the first time, he is harvesting grapes from his own garden to provide for his family.
Once the hub of the opium trade in the southern region, Kandahar, especially the Panjwai district has been transformed into a center for grape farming due to a greatly improved security situation there and in adjoining districts, the vineyard owner told Xinhua.
Read the full story at Xinhua