Overall, an eradication-led strategy could face severe problems with implementation, poverty impacts, and political damage. Implementation is very difficult where the authority of the central government is fragile, and experience indicates that it will lead only to changes in the location of opium production. Poverty impacts will be negative, given the dependence of large numbers of poor people on opium for their livelihood (..). Political risk is daunting (..). The Government wants to win over the rural poor through inclusive development processes, not aggressive destruction of their livelihoods. (..) Finally, there is a moral, political and economic case for having alternative livelihoods programs in place before commencing eradication.
- Alternative development