Myanmar has long been notorious for its production of opium poppies, the key ingredient for heroin.

But Nagano Prefecture native Akio Ujihara has set out to help the Myanmarese junta in its fight against drugs by teaching farmers to plant buckwheat instead of poppies to decrease their dependence on the flower for income.

In August, roughly 10 years of effort culminated in his founding of the nonprofit organization Association for Drug and Poverty Eradication, which aims to boost consumption of Myanmar-produced buckwheat and reduce poverty in the country.