KABUL: Abdullah Arsalan, owner of Ozula Naturals, has introduced rose farming as an attractive alternate to growing poppy for local farmers in eastern Nangarhar province.
Nearly 2,000 people work on his rose fields and factory processing organic perfumes and essential oils from Afghanistan’s famous damask rose.
The perfumer, who is in his 40s, fell in love with flowers after a near-death experience alerted him to the healing power of herbs and plants.
One night during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, Arsalan was traveling with a group of relatives and friends in a remote and rugged part of Paktia province, when a jet fighter appeared overhead.
The aircraft dropped flares to lighten the ground as it prepared to unleash bombs on their vehicle, in the mistaken belief that it was carrying Mujahideen warriors, Arsalan recalled.
Although none of the bombs hit the vehicle, panic ensured as occupants tried to jump out of the vehicle. First the driver left, followed by one of Arsalan’s friends. But Arsalan, then a teenager, was stuck with his leg logged in the vehicle.
The driverless car careered on, nose down, until it hit a massive rock. Arsalan survived but was badly injured. The group sheltered in a mosque in a nearby village.
While there, some of the village elders heard about Arsalan’s injuries and treated him with a herbal medicine. Reporting that it instantly eased the pain, Arsalan said that he fell in love with herbs and plants as he came to know their power and impact.
Years later, as a war refugee living in Pakistan, Arsalan decided that he wanted to become an agriculturalist. He went to the US and got a biochemistry degree, remaining there until the fall of the Taliban regime in his country in 2001.
At this point, Arsalan who is in his early 40s, began testing Afghanistan’s abundant herbs and plants, exploring whether they could be turned into essential oils.
His hard work paid off — now his perfume brand and essential oils are sold to international customers in Canada and France. But more than this, he has convinced hundreds of poppy growers to abandon cultivation of the lucrative plant and choose his way of farming.
He began by persuading people in his tribe and village to stop growing poppies and turn to rose farming to make perfume and essential oil instead.
“At first, people were not sure…I am happy that I started this and I kept on going… In Nangarhar, there are 1,500 farmers, growers who moved from growing poppy to rose and orange. They are very happy.”
A farmer makes over $1,500 per jirib (less than a quarter of a hectare) by selling roses from his land to Arsalan. While the price is not as high as from the poppy crop, that trade is not paid for in cash, is illegal and therefore involves risk. As a result, he said, more people are choosing the legitimate option of growing roses.
“More and more farmers are interested to go for this,” he said. “We have a lot of good natural products and herbs in this country, we do not need synthetic chemicals from other places,” said Arsalan.
There are herbs in Afghanistan which are rare, huge quantity of them are taken to Pakistan and India where they are packed, mixed with other ingredients, renamed, and imported to Afghanistan for selling as part of the traditional medicine trade, he said.
Arsalan plans to expand his perfume producing trade to other parts of the country, focusing on herbs this time.
And will he be growing the herb that healed his foot and started him on this path? “I regret not knowing the name of the herb,” he said, adding: “That (herb) is the real reason for my attachment to herbs… That is why I started biochemistry,” he said.
“It is unlikely I will come to know the name of that herb as the two elderly men who treated me are not alive any more, but I will keep looking for the mystical benefits of plants,” he said.
