Professor to teach poppy growers buckwheat cultivation

Asian Economic News, April 5, 1999

NAGANO, Japan, March 29 Kyodo For many residents of the infamous Golden Triangle, where much of the world's opium and heroin is produced, growing poppy is a means of survival. But a Japanese professor intends to dedicate his post-retirement years to teaching residents of the region a different way.

Akio Ujihara's plan is to encourage people to substitute commercial buckwheat crops for opium cultivation throughout the region, which straddles the borders of Laos, Myanmar and Thailand. The Myanmar government, which is aiming to eradicate the country's drug problem by 2014, invited Ujihara, 65, to the country through the Japan International Cooperation Agency. A specialist in plant genetics and a professor at Shinshu University in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, Ujihara began visiting the Golden Triangle in April 1996 and has since made trips to the region about once every two months. With residents of a small town of 200 inhabitants with whom he has had extensive contact harvesting 40 to 50 tons of easily produced buckwheat at the end of last year, Ujihara says he hopes to increase this number 10-fold this year. However, he also realizes that the drug problems plaguing the area are not likely to be solved overnight. ''Drugs will not be eradicated just because poppy fields disappear,'' he said, stressing that area residents are also in need of education and medical care. But he sees his efforts as creating a foothold in the area and plans to travel extensively in the region to teach local residents about crop substitution. Ujihara, who will retire from his job at the university Tuesday, is wasting no time on embarking on his mission. He and his wife, Atsuko, leave for their new home in Myanmar on Wednesday.