STORY: Asafetida offers profitable alternative to poppy cultivation in Afghanistan
SHOOTING TIME: Dec. 7, 2024
DATELINE: Dec. 11, 2024
LENGTH: 00:02:17
LOCATION: PARWAN, Afghanistan
CATEGORY: AGRICULTURE

SHOTLIST:
1. various of farmers cultivating asafetida in Parwan Province in northern Afghanistan
2. SOUNDBITE 1 (Dari): SAFIULLAH ROHANI, Managing director of Rohani Company
3. SOUNDBITE 2 (Pashto): ZAINUDIN, Manager of daily laborers at the asafetida farm

STORYLINE:

Safiullah Rohani, managing director of Rohani Company, a firm investing in asafetida farming in Afghanistan, believes that the cultivation of asafetida could serve as a viable and profitable replacement for opium poppy in the once poppy-growing country.
   
SOUNDBITE 1 (Dari): SAFIULLAH ROHANI, Managing director of Rohani Company
"Hing (Asafetida) is the best replacement for poppy in Afghanistan. It is more profitable and generates significantly higher income than poppies. We have invested and cultivated asafetida on more than 100 acres of land in Mazar-i-Sharif and 30 acres of land in Parwan, and about 100 to 200 persons are working with us."

According to Rohani, each daily worker earns 500 afghani (about 7.1 U.S. dollars) a day.

Describing his business as highly profitable, Rohani explained that he invested 100,000 afghani (about 1,429 U.S. dollars) in a farm of asafetida and would earn 1 million afghani (about 14,286 U.S. dollars) after two years.

Zainudin, a manager of the daily laborers at the asafetida farm, also emphasized the benefits of asafetida cultivation.

SOUNDBITE 2 (Pashto): ZAINUDIN, Manager of daily laborers at the asafetida farm
"This is a good job, as asafetida farming is far more profitable than poppy cultivation, which brings nothing but harm."

Widely used in medicine manufacturing both domestically and internationally, the plantation of asafetida has been on a constant rise in Afghanistan over the past decade. 
   
As Afghanistan seeks to transition away from its troubled history of poppy production, crops like asafetida offer hope for a more sustainable and prosperous future.

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Parwan, Afghanistan.
(XHTV)