Executive Summary:- "In Myanmar, the problem of opium and heroin production has deep historical roots that reach back to the 19th century. Second source of illicit opium and heroin in the world after Afghanistan during the last decade, the country has recorded an encouraging decline of illicit opium poppy cultivation since the mid-1990s. Results of the extensive fieldwork and satellite imagery analysis conducted by the last UNODC-supported opium survey confirm the continuation of the positive trend in 2003. With a further one-year decline of 24%, opium poppy cultivation is now down to 62,200 ha (against 81,400 ha in 2002). Since 1996, cultivation has declined by more than 100,000 ha, or 62%...[chart]... The largest cultivation decrease this year took place in the Northern Shan State (- 50%). It is attributed to farmers? compliance with the Government?s request not to plant opium poppy. Important decreases also took place in the Southwestern (-18%) and Southeastern areas (-26%) of the Shan State. By contrast, cultivation increased by 21% in the Wa Special Region 2, and 6% in the Central Shan region. As a result, the Wa Special region 2 now ranks first for opium poppy cultivation, with 34% of the national total, and the Northern Shan region second with 29%, in 2003. Based on an estimated harvest of about 810 metric tons of opium, and a price of approximately 130 US$/kg, the total farmgate value of the 2003 opium production in Myanmar would amount to around US$ 105 million. The estimated 350,000 households who cultivated opium poppy in the Shan State this year would earn an average of about US$ 175 from the sale of their individual opium harvest. Although seemingly very small, this income makes opium by far the first source of cash for those families, accounting for 70% of their total annual cash income (about US$ 230)"... Table of contents:- INTRODUCTION... FINDINGS: OPIUM POPPY CULTIVATION; YIELD AND PRODUCTION OPIUM PRICES AND CASH INCOME; FIELD DAMAGE; ADDICTION; ERADICATION... WA ALTERNATIVE DEVELOPMENT PROJECT SURVEY FINDINGS: OPIUM POPPY CULTIVATION; OPIUM YIELD AND PRODUCTION; OPIUM PRICES METHODOLOGY: ORGANISATION AND STAFF; OPIUM POPPY CULTIVATION ESTIMATES; YIELD ESTIMATION... ANNEXES: Annex 1 Satellite images used for the 2003 Opium Survey; Annex 2 Calculation for Opium Area Estimates; Annex 3 Opium Cultivation Area and Production by township; Annex 4 Opium Survey Results By Administrative Zones for 2002 and 2003... Maps: Map 1 2003 Survey Regions; Map 2 2003 Distribution of Opium Poppy Cultivation over Agricultural Areas; Map 3 2003 Opium Poppy Cultivation (by Township); Map 4 Shan State - Change in Opium Poppy Cultivation 2002-03; Map 5 2003 Opium Production (by township); Map 6 WADP townships; Map 7 Sampled village tracts in the Shan State; Map 8 Landsat7 and IKONOS map used for the 2003 Myanmar opium survey; Map 9 Shan State ? Administrative Regions.