The United Nations World Food Program says it plans to offer emergency food assistance to ex-opium poppy farmers in Burma.
The UN agency released a report saying it will provide nearly 10-thousand tons of rice to 180-thousand farmers in the Kokang and Wa areas of Burma's Shan state.
UN officials will ship the rice over a one-year period until next March.
The United Nations says the Kokang and Wa areas, and the neighboring townships, now produce more than 50 percent of all opium poppy in Burma -- down from a prior figure of 70 percent.
Opium poppy is the raw material used for heroin.