Opium poppy harvest

Available for over a year

Sybil Ruscoe goes on the journey of Britain's opium poppy harvest starting in the fields of Dorset but heading to the medicine cabinets of our hospitals and pharmacies. The crop is grown by the pharmaceutical company MacFarlan Smith and provides half of all morphine used in the UK. MacFarlan Smith work with a number of farmers in Dorset, Hampshire, Oxfordshire and Lincolnshire. Although the farmer has to drill the seed, MacFarlan Smith monitors the crop on a weekly basis. More commonly grown in warmer countries such as India and Tasmania, the UK harvest this year has flourished. Presented by Sybil Ruscoe and produced by Lucy Bickerton.