Fed up with growing opium.

He is an energetic and youthful looking man of 67 years who lives in Keo Pratu village, Nonghet District in the Xieng Khoang province in the Lao People's Democratic Republic. And he tells visitors from the United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) that he was "fed up" with growing opium.

Sitting in his home in Nonghet, Mr. Kur describes how his Hmong family had moved here from Sam Yom border area some 70 years ago. He was born in Nonghet, one of seven children. Now, he is the only one remaining in the village. Three of his siblings live in Phonsavanh, a four-hour drive away, and one sister lives even farther away - in the United States. And he himself has eight daughters and two sons.

According to Mr. Kur, he and his family before him had been cultivating opium for about a century, but "it is getting more and more difficult to sell". And recently, he continues, "the district officials here have made it clear that anyone caught selling opium will go to jail". He points out that anyone selling opium in Viet Nam risks the death penalty, adding that "basically, the risks are getting too high". He says he still enjoys a pipe about once a week and that it might be all right to continue to grow it for one's own consumption, "but if you sell it, that's another matter!"

In the face of this official reaction to the trade, Mr. Kur says opium prices had fallen to Kip 140,000 ($107 at K1,300/US$1) for a kilo of first quality. For third quality, the price is just under $58 per kilo. He recalls the price in 1995/1996 was about Kip 350,000 per kilo ($357 at the exchange rates prevailing then).

In addition, Mr. Kur notes that growing opium is very time consuming work. "It takes such a lot of effort to get a kilo of the stuff!", he laughs. We go out back of the fenced house to look at his 300 square metre kitchen garden area. There are orange and lime trees there, a grape vine tucked behind the house and some 100 square metres of asparagus, with about the same area devoted to squash.

How did this happen?

In 1993/1994, an agronomist working for the UNDCP-supported Nonghet project at the time, Seng Hkun, was attracted to the idea that asparagus might grow in the area, and he brought some seeds from Thailand. It was tried first experimentally in UNDCP project nurseries, with the first crop harvested in 1995.

"Asparagus was completely unknown to the villagers, but people were attracted to the idea of growing something that seemed to require relatively little labour and was an annual crop", observed the National Project Director, Dr. Boonporn. Asparagus requires about as much work as maize, according to Mr. Kur, but then it continues producing for seven months before resting for five.

Mr. Kur has about 33 square metres of asparagus which is two years old, with about the same area also planted last year and this year. Currently, he gets between 3 and 4 kilos each day. At the moment, a kilo sells for Kip 800 in the local market and for up to Kip 1,500 if he can get it to Phonsavanh, which he occasionally does.

In 1997, the project established a marketing link with a vendor in Vientiane who wanted to buy the asparagus on the farm and take over the transport responsibility. The vendor and the District Marketing Committee recently signed a contract for 100 kilograms a day at Kip 1,000 at the farm gate.

Two former opium producing villages, including Keo Pratu, have signed up, agreeing not to grow any more opium if they get the assistance with asparagus. The Marketing Committee will buy the vegetable at Kip 800-900 and monitor the arrangement. With the recent changes in value of the Kip, there is a need to review the price and, reportedly, there is a clause in the contract to allow for this.

Mr. Kur knows he has succeeded. And he expects other farmers to visit him as production expands to meet the buyer's needs.

Fact: A UNDCP project in the Palavek region of Laos replaced poppy crops with alternatives such as coffee and asparagus. The result: opium production dropped from 3.5 tonnes to 100 kilogrammes annually.