How does an alternative livelihoods approach address the problem of rural poverty and opium production? In the early spring of 2002, just after the US defeat of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Marilee Kane traveled to Badakhshan province in the extreme north-east of Afghanistan, where she met woman from poultry raising groups in Argo district. She returned to the district in 2003 with an FAO mission designing an alternative livelihoods project for opium producing provinces. In the span of one year, Argo had become the booming "opium capital" of Badakhshan. Ms. Kane spoke again to many of the same women to see how growing opium had changed their lives