Troubling Fields: The Opium Poppy in Egypt

Probably domesticated in Asia Minor, the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) may have reached Egypt by 1500 b.c.e. Egyptian opium was important historically for medicinal uses, but increasing recreational use led to eradication efforts by the early twentieth century. With the closure of Lebanon's Bekáa Valley as a source of raw opium, poppy cultivation began in the Sinai Peninsula after 1990. Unemployment attracts bedouin men to this dangerous occupation. A heroin epidemic in Egypt is attributed to them, but their very modest opium production suggests wrongly so. A package of development activities with emphasis on backcountry tourism is proposed as an alternative to poppy farming.