Myanmar: Myanmar Hills Embrace Silkworms over Poppies

May 9, 2018 | Ann Wang, Reuters
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Zhou Xing Ci’s family have farmed poppies for as long as anyone remembers. Along with many other farmers in the hills of eastern Myanmar, poppies – much of which ends up as heroin sold on foreign streets - have in recent years put Myanmar behind only Afghanistan as the world’s leading source of opium. “That tradition stops with me,” Xing, 42, told Reuters. Zhou is now in his third year raising silkworms rather than poppies, and says quicker profits have enabled his family - with six children - to upgrade from a bamboo hut. A Chinese company working with farmers like Zhou hopes the silk-producing larva can help the farmers, and their country, quit the drug.