As well as providing training to the new generation of farmers, the UK-led Provincial Reconstruction Team in Helmand is also supplying farmers with supplies of subsidised wheat seed, so that the current generation can start to cultivate legal crops now, instead of poppy.

Afghanistan currently produces 90% of the world’s opium, the key ingredient in heroin. The UK-led Provincial Reconstruction Team in Helmand Province is helping Afghanistan to tackle the country’s illegal drugs trade which destroys lives around the world.

With UK support, young Afghan farmers are learning to grow legal crops that can give them an alternative income to opium. Established farmers are destroying poppy fields so they can use the land to grow wheat and other crops from subsidised seeds.

This work is seeing results - poppy cultivation in Helmand is falling as farmers start to grow new crops. To curtail the traffickers, Afghanistan’s counter narcotics police also play a crucial role finding and destroying smuggled drugs before they leave the country.

To find out more, please visit: <a href="http://www.dfid.gov.uk/afghanistan" rel="nofollow">www.dfid.gov.uk/afghanistan</a>