Boom Times For Myanmar Opium Farmers As Coup Chaos Bites

Myanmar became the world's biggest opium producer in 2023, overtaking Afghanistan after the Taliban government launched a crackdown on the crop there (Credit: AFP)

In a remote corner of Myanmar a line of farmers move through a field of nodding poppies, making small cuts in the greenish-purple pods to release opium resin.

The next morning they will collect the residue that has seeped out overnight and parcel it up into bundles of sticky opium -- the building blocks for manufacturing heroin.