Lou Cuypers is a Dutch entrepreneur working in Uruzgan. He is not affiliated with the army and he likes to keep it that way. Basically, he works with local farmers in Southern Afghanistan… and they aren’t too keen to have army trucks showing up at their door - that might get Taliban attention, and that’s never a good thing.
Mr. Cuypers offers help growing crops that, in his view, are more profitable than poppies. But it’s not an easy task. That’s partly because many farmers have been growing poppies all their lives and are are hesitant to change to the new, untested products. Also, there is pressure on the farmers from the Taliban who rely on the opium harvest as a source of income via the drug trade. In addition, poppies are also used by locals as a painkiller for all sorts of ailments.
So how does Lou Cuypers convince farmers they should try growing saffron? Listen to the full interview here.
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on May 4th, 2009 at 11:09 am
[...] The civilian helping Afghan farmers [...]