The adage that "idle are the devil's workshop" may date to the 12th century, but it has a particularly poignant ring today in southern Afghanistan as the annual poppy harvest winds down and NATO forces brace for a possible spike in violence.

Village leaders and power brokers throughout Kandahar province are pleading with the Canadian military and development officials to focus more money and attention on massive make-work projects.

Such jobs, usually back-breaking construction work, would serve to keep chronically under-employed or jobless Afghan males of fighting age - between 18 and 25 - from falling into the clutches of Taliban recruiters.

"I would like to see the Canadians to mostly focus on the projects (where) they can create jobs," said Ahmed Wali Karzai, head of the provincial council in Kandahar and half brother to Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Canada's Conservative government, through a special cabinet committee chaired by Trade Minister David Emerson, is in the process of setting benchmarks - objectives to be achieved in Kandahar before the military mission ends in 2011.

Karzai said building infrastructure, that either didn't exist or has been pulverized by three decades of war should be near the top of the list.

"Job creation is the key thing that the Canadian policy should be from now," he said in an interview.

A key leader in the volatile Panjwaii district, where Canadian troops have had to time and again retake villages from the insurgents, also agreed with that assessment.

Haji Agha Lalai said a promise of steady cash isn't the only reason young men join the Taliban, but is a very important factor.

"If they have more jobs here, if they are provided jobs they will not join Taliban," said Lalai, the shura or council leader in a farming community west of Kandahar City.

Tens of thousands of Afghans have been toiling in bone-dry 40°C heat for the last few weeks to bring in the poppy harvest, expected to be the largest in southern Afghanistan in living memory. The picking, all done by hand, is expected to go on for another two or three weeks.

What comes after that is what worries NATO commanders in Kandahar and Helmand provinces, the two biggest poppy-producing regions in the country.

Once unemployed, those thousands of mostly illiterate field hands become a deep recruiting pool for the Taliban. Often they are bought off with money made in large part from the spoils of refining poppies into opium and heroin for the illicit drug trade.

"The people here have a lot of capacity to work in different building projects. When the people (are) busy, their minds are not diverted towards negative activities," said Lalai.

The Canadian army has recognized the urgent need to get people working as the poppy harvest draws to a close.

There is one large road-building project underway west of Kandahar City employing about 450 people and another paving project is planned for the near future. Afghans are also hired for the construction work when police checkpoints and stations are constructed, but only a few dozen at a time.

Lt.-Col. Jacques O'Keefe, who's in charge of engineering projects, says he's tried to maximize the amount of local labour on the army's projects, but the roads and causeways currently being built serve a military purpose first and foremost.

"There is a lot of money being injected into Afghanistan," O'Keefe said in an interview. "People ask nothing more than to earn an honest living, feed their family and go to work and have some hope."