Conditions in Afghanistan are favorable for growing artemisia, the plant used to produce artemisinin-based malaria therapies, the Senlis Council -- an international policy group that studies security, development and counter-narcotics issues -- said on Wednesday, the Canadian Press/Google.com reports. According to the council, growing artemisia would provide Afghan farmers with a cash-crop alternative to opium and would help developing countries fight malaria. There is a "worldwide shortage in developing countries" of artemisinin-based combination therapies, the council said in a release.

The council previously proposed a project that would use the country's opium crop to produce medical morphine rather than illegal drugs. Council President Norine MacDonald said that using the same model to cultivate artemisia as a cash crop "would greatly benefit Afghan farming communities by increasing the incomes of those farmers not contracted to cultivate poppy for medicine in any one year." MacDonald added that the extraction of artemisinin could "help diversify the economy of Afghanistan's rural communities and reinforce a new pharmaceutical industry" for the country. She said it also would "go a long way towards addressing the 500 million cases of clinical malaria each year around the world" (Canadian Press/Google.com, 12/5).