Hill, A. The flora of the Somme battlefield. Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information, Kew Saunders, N. The poppy. Oneworld Publications, London. A long history of medicinal value The flowers of the field poppy have long been used as a painkiller for soothing mild aches and pains e. In Flanders fields the poppies blow. Between the crosses, row on row But not all scars are visible. Epilogue Many millions died in wars before the field poppy became the symbol of remembrance; many more will do so.
References Bimonte, S. Potter, J. Seven flowers and how they shaped our world. Atlantic Books, London. Most comes from Mexico. But there has recently been a rise in seizures at sea, on routes between the Indian Ocean and Europe. Although there have been fluctuations, opium production and opium-related seizures have shown an upward trend over the last two decades, in line with poppy cultivation in Afghanistan.
Drug seizures and arrests have had minimal impact on the country's opium poppy cultivation, according to Sigar. Read more from Reality Check. Send us your questions. Image source, Getty Images. How much opium is produced in Afghanistan? What has the Taliban said it will do about opium? What is the Taliban's record? In spite of the risk of a hard winter and spring frost to which autumn cultivation is exposed, spring sowing is rare and is in general resorted to only when autumn crops are destroyed during the winter.
Spring sowing does not give such a large or good yield as autumn sowing. The long period of vegetation promotes the formation of alkaloids and, moreover, the spring crop may not develop sufficiently before the dry period and may wither without yielding either opium or seeds.
Spring sowing is carried out in the first fine days of the year, usually in the second half of February or the first half of March. The seeds are very small, and are difficult to sow evenly.
For this reason, in some places they are mixed with sand 2 to 4 kg of sand per kg of seed. Sowing with a seeder is carried out usually in rows at intervals of 30 to 40 cm. The earth is harrowed, so that the seeds are sown 1 or 2 cm deep. From 6 to 10 kg of seed are used to sow one hectare.
The spring operations are usually carried out in the second half of February and consist of pulling up grass and weeds, thinning so that one plant should be approximately 10 cm away from the next and banking up with earth. A second banking-up operation is usually carried out in the first half of March. At the beginning of May, the fields become white with the flowering poppy, and when the flowers fall off, the capsules develop.
Each plant yields from five to eight capsules. The incisions are made before the capsules are quite ripe, ten to fifteen days after the flowers fall off, at the end of May or the beginning of June. The best time for making the incisions is determined by the colour and hardness of the capsules and by the appearance of a blue-brown ring at the bottom of the capsule.
The period during which the capsules can be incised and the latex successfully collected does not exceed four to six days. If the right moment is missed, the capsules take on a yellowish shade and give less latex, finally yielding nothing at all. Cutting is usually done between 11 a.
A quarter of the capsule is always left uncut, to allow a further circulation of nutritious substances at the top of the capsule. Small drops of white, milky juice then begin to flow from the incision, and exposed to the air solidify and grow darker.
The incision must be neither too shallow nor too deep. If it is too shallow, the number of latex vessels affected may be too small and too little juice will drip out; if the incision is too deep, so that the capsule is entirely cut through, the latex will flow into the capsule and the whole yield will be lost.
The incisions are made with special knives or with special tools, consisting of wooden handles fitted with sharp pieces of iron often razor blades. The size of the blade automatically regulates the depth of the incision.
Tools with two or more blades are also used, to allow two or three cuts with a single motion. As soon as the incision is made, the latex begins to drip. In order to avoid brushing against the capsules, the harvesters making incisions must walk backwards. Unlike the procedure in certain Far Eastern countries the incisions are never repeated. At dawn the following day, the gathering of the raw opium begins; this consists of collecting the solidified drops of latex which have gathered overnight around the incision in the capsule.
The opium is stripped from the capsule with a special blunt knife and is collected in a conical vessel attached to the harvester's belt or into a rumex or poppy leaf. It is then kneaded until it becomes dark, dried for a short time and thereupon is formed into to 1.
That is the form in which it is delivered by the producers. It has been proved that two, three or more incisions yield more opium, but each subsequent incision produces opium with a lower morphine content. In countries which used to supply the opium smoking market, manifold incisions of the capsules were profitable, since more opium could thus be obtained.
This opium is at the same time more suitable for smoking because of its lower morphine content. Yugoslav opium has an unpleasant taste and a high morphine content and has therefore never been in demand on the smokers' market nor exported for this purpose.
It is intended only for the Western market, where morphine content is in demand. Accordingly, manifold incision of capsules is not profitable. The fact that the capsules are cut only once accounts for the considerably greater output of opium per hectare in Far Eastern countries than in Yugoslavia. Between 0. The output per hectare varies between 4 and 15 kg, according to the place and year.
About three weeks after the opium harvest, the plant becomes fully ripe and the capsules are collected and broken up for the seeds, which are used to manufacture oil. Between and kg of seeds are obtained per hectare, according to the place and year. The cultivation of the opium poppy is highly profitable and, at the same time, very risky for the producer.
One advantage is that nearly the whole plant can be used. Opium and poppy seeds are commodities for which there is always a market. The relatively high value of these products in relation to their volume is a highly favourable factor for producers in parts of the country with poor communications.
Continuous contact with the outlet, which is essential, for example, in market gardening, is not required in this case, and opium can be kept for a long time without any danger of deterioration in quality storage leads to a decrease in the moisture, but the amount of morphine remains unchanged. The seed cakes left after the oil has been extracted are used as cattle food, the dry capsules are sold as raw material for the production of alkaloids and the remaining straw is used as litter and as fuel to replace wood a large proportion of the opium region is poor in timber.
The relatively quick growth of the plant often makes it possible to use the soil for yet another crop in the same season, while the early harvesting of opium gives the producer his first income of the year.
The main cultivation operations take place at a time when no other agricultural work has to be done. Finally, some kinds of soil are suitable only for cultivating the opium poppy and yield considerably less of any other crop.
On the other hand, this is one of the agricultural crops exposed to the greatest risks, which persist throughout the growing period of the plant. Sowing takes place in the autumn, after the first autumn rains moisten the earth.
If these rains fall too late, the plant is insufficiently developed by the winter, and is therefore sensitive to cold and may be destroyed even in a mild winter. Another risk of crop failure is that of a hard winter, especially without snow.
An unduly mild winter is also unsuitable, for the plants can develop too fast and the opium gathering period may occur too early, when rains are more frequent. A wet spring can promote the development of plant diseases to which the poppy is very sensitive and too much moisture in the ground makes the latex too thin and causes it to trickle out of the capsule on to the ground after incision.
The chief danger of the producer, however, is rain at the time of the harvest, as the harvest can be potsponed for only a few days. Rain during the night following the incising of the capsules may entirely wash away the drops of latex and completely destroy the crop. Even dew can cause serious damage at that period. In the case of spring cultivation, there is the further risk of dry weather setting in before the plants are sufficiently developed, so that they may wither without yielding either opium or seeds.
The opium poppy is one of the most intensive agricultural cultivations and requires a great deal of manpower; the poppy needs constant care throughout its period of growth. Approximately 30 days of team work and manpower days including collection of opium and seeds are required to cultivate one hectare. A shortage of specialized labour at harvest-time is yet another risk to which the cultivation of the opium poppy is exposed.
The hazards of opium poppy cultivation may best be seen from table 1. While 70, kg were produced in , only 2, kg were produced in The mechanization of agriculture cannot make the production of opium much cheaper. Apart from ploughing, sowing and winnowing the seeds with ploughs, seeders and winnowers the remaining operations can be performed only by human hand.
Labour takes up from 80 to 90 per cent of the production costs.
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