Uncertain future in a sea of poppies Premium

Three districts in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan together contribute to 80% of India’s opium production. Already facing the problem of stagnant procurement rates and rising input prices, farmers are now angry with the Union government for opening opium production and processing to private players. A.M. Jigeesh talks to farmers in the Mewar region about their concerns

When Sunder Bai’s husband, Shiv Narayan, died during the COVID-19 pandemic, she inherited 1 square kilometre of land and his licence to cultivate opium. She lives with her daughter and son in a village near Nayagaon in Neemuch district on the Madhya-Pradesh Rajasthan border. “Both my children, who are graduates, support and help me in this profession,” says Bai. “We employ four or five people to cultivate opium and extract opium gum.”

Bai’s son Anil, 25, who holds a degree in physics, has decided not to find a job and instead help his mother on the farm. Opium cultivation is known as swabhiman ki kheti (agriculture of dignity) in the Mewar region that is spread across Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. There is so much pride in the age-old trade that a saying in this area goes, “Afeem aur aulat barabar (poppy plants and children deserve similar treatment)”. While farmers in Madhya Pradesh call the crop afeem, a name which finds its origin in Persia, the community in Rajasthan calls it amal (pure).

Entire families in this region usually cultivate opium from November to March; some have doing this for as long as 200 years. Young men and women protect the family licence for various reasons. “One reason is that it increases their marriage prospects,” says Parmanand Patidar, a farmer, laughing.

Bai had been cultivating opium with Narayan for about 20 years before he died. Anil says the job is not easy. “The procurement rate for opium hasn’t increased in many years (farmers get ₹1,200-2,000 per kilogramme of opium latex based on the concentration of morphine in it) and the input cost has increased due to the price rise of fertilizers, labour costs, and pesticides. We also have to be vigilant all the time. We go to the field even at night to ensure that the crop is secure from thieves. We also cultivate other crops to manage our expenses. But we will continue to cultivate opium as it is a family practice,” he says with pride.

Apart from worrying about inflation, opium farmers have been agitated ever since the sector was opened up to private players through a Union government policy in 2021. The farmers increasingly worry that this move will threaten their livelihood, affect their profits and family businesses, and also have a bearing on “national security” by potentially increasing the problem of drug abuse.

In India, there are about 1 lakh farmers across 22 districts in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh with a licence to cultivate opium. The majority of them are from three districts that border Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan — Mandsaur, Neemuch, and Chittorgarh. Together, these districts produce 80% of India’s opium.

Opium is obtained by slightly incising the seed capsules of the poppy after the plant’s flower petals have fallen. Two types of narcotic raw materials can be produced from opium poppy: opium gum (latex) and the concentrate of poppy straw (CPS). Until recently, only opium gum, a milky substance, was produced in India. Opium contains morphine, which is known to relieve chronic pain and is used mostly by the pharmaceutical industry to produce medicines, and codeine. On the flip side, it also produces opioids like heroin.