Afghanistan's government will begin a major poppy eradication programme targeting three provinces this week to counter the country's burgeoning narcotics trade, Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali said Sunday.
The programme will focus first on the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand and Nangarhar in the east, the minister said.
"This is the first phase, the second phase will include all provinces," he said, adding that the programme will continue until the end of April.
Afghanistan is the world's biggest producer of poppy-derived opium, used to make heroin. Kandahar, Helmand and Nangarhar account for about eight percent of the country's poppy crop, Jalali said.
"We decide which provinces have priority by the climate," he said, adding that warmer provinces would be tackled first.
Good security and water supplies so farmers could grow alternative crops was also necessary, he said.
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