Ministry of Counter Narcotics (MoCN) on Sunday said they rolling out a rural agriculture expansion project in Nangarhar to encourage farmers not to cultivate poppies and instead produce legal agricultural products. 

According to the counter narcotics ministry, the total cost of the project is over $22 million USD based on which farmers will be trained to cultivate their farms legally. 

Counter narcotics minister Salamat Azimi said this project will be a pilot project and they will help market the agricultural produce and will establish processing and packaging factories.  

According to Azimi, if the project proves successful, then similar projects will be implemented in other parts of the country. 

“The program starts from today and will continue up to 2020 and if it works, it will be expanded to other provinces,” said Azimi. 

Meanwhile, Nangarhar governor Gulab Mangal said a large part of the revenue generated through drugs goes to syndicates. 

“We will encourage farmers not to cultivate drugs on their land and instead cultivate other types of plants that yield good results in Nangarhar,” Mangal said. 

According to the counter narcotics ministry, around 28,500 families will benefit from the rural agriculture expansion project.