Updated: It plans to rope in private sector to boost yield of alkaloids Share Article AAA File photo of poppy cultivation in Lohit district of Arunachal Pradesh. Poppy crop cultivation is allowed based on licences issued annually by the Central Bureau of Narcotics. | Photo Credit: RITU RAJ KONWAR It plans to rope in private sector to boost yield of alkaloids The Central government has decided to rope in the private sector to commence production of concentrated poppy straw from India’s opium crop to boost their yield of alkaloids, used for medical purposes and exported to several countries. Among the few countries permitted to cultivate the opium poppy crop for export and extraction of alkaloids, India currently only extracts alkaloids from opium gum at facilities controlled by the Revenue Department in the Finance Ministry. This entails farmers extracting gum by manually lancing the opium pods and selling the gum to government factories.