WASHINGTON - Acknowledging that drugs are the main source of terrorist financing in the region, the United States on Wednesday said it was also a source of stability and income for poor farmers, who were forced to grow the banned crop for the Taliban.

“We're all well aware that the Taliban has used it to finance itself, It's also a source of stability and income for poor farmers, who are basically forced, many times, to grow it for the Taliban,” the State Department spokesman, John Kirby, told reporters at his daily news conference.

Responding to a question, Kirby said it is not just as simple as an eradication program. “You have to be able to work on supplementing it for something else, and we have worked with Afghan authorities for many years about trying to find other crops that farmers can grow to make a good living, and there's been some success in that,” he argued.

 “This is a tough problem to get at, but to simply, you know, work towards some eradication programme -- to burn them to the ground, while that may have an immediate effect, it doesn't necessarily do anything for long-term stability and security for Afghan farmers,” Kirby said.

The United States had been and would continue to be focused on trying to work towards a more secure, more stable, more prosperous Afghanistan, he said. (Pajhwok)