Calcutta, March 5 :     Opium and heroin production in Northwest Myanmar, bordering India, has been on the rise over the past few years, according to a recent joint report by Images Asia, Karen Human Rights Group and The Open Society Institute's Burma project. Improvement in drug enforcement in Thailand and China since the early Nineties have made the drug cartels shift their business to Northwest Myanmar. They have opened up new routes for both raw opium and heroin from Shan state to the plains around Mandalay, through Chin state and Sagaing division to the Indian border states of Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland and on to world markets. The report claimed Myanmar was the world's biggest producer of heroin, frequently described as the country's most valuable export. The report alleged a nexus between the military junta and the drug cartels. Ever since the military seized power in the country in 1988, opium production has increased to over 2,030 metric tonnes annually, that is, 60 per cent of the world supply, the report added. It said farmers in Chin state and Sagaing division have been compelled to grow opium on a large scale as military extortion, forced labour and relocation have made it difficult for them to survive by growing crops such as rice and vegetables. Hence, the temptation to grow opium has increased, the report added. A former policeman from Tiddim, whose duty was to monitor the local drug eradication programme, said opium poppies were planted in about 15 acres of land in almost every village in Tiddim and Falam areas. Each opium grower paid an annual flat rate of 10,000 kyats to the State Drug Control authorities and 5,000 kyats to the local police, regardless of the acres they cultivated, the report said. The report observed that three new drug-related trends had emerged in northwestern Myanmar - opium production was increasing in the Chin and Naga Hills, heroin refineries had come up in the region and heroin trafficking, from Shan states through northwest Myanmar into India, was rising. Heroin refinery factories have cropped up in Chin state and Sagaing division since the early Nineties. The report stated that these refineries were being operated in areas controlled by the Myanmarese Army. The report also said chemicals like acetic anhydride, essential for processing raw opium into heroin, were brought from India to Myanmar.