Afghanistan opium poppy production increasing, U.N. says
The boom in opium poppy cultivation is especially strong in regions where Western troops have left, the U.N. says.
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Afghan police destroy an
opium poppy field in Noorgal, east of Kabul. "Afghanistan is to turn
into a narco-state unless and until there is a comprehensive strategy
that is adopted now," a U.N. official said.
(Rahmat Gul / Associated Press / April 13, 2013)
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KABUL,
Afghanistan — Opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has been
increasing for a third year in a row and is heading for a record high,
the United Nations said in a report Monday.
The boom is at its most pronounced in the Taliban's
heartland in the south, the report shows, especially in regions where
troops of the U.S.-led coalition have been withdrawn or are departing.
The report suggests that international efforts to wean farmers off the
crop are having little success.
Increased production has been driven by unusually high opium prices, but more cultivation of Afghanistan's premier cash crop is also an indication that Afghans are turning to illicit markets and crops as the real economy shrinks in anticipation of the withdrawal of foreign combat troops by the end of next year.
The exact figure for 2013 is still unclear, but the U.N. said indications are it will surpass the 154,000 hectares planted in 2012.
Afghanistan is the world's largest producer of opium, the raw ingredient in heroin, and last year provided about 75% of the global crop, a figure that may jump to 90% this year because of the increase in cultivation.
Crop sales mostly fund local power brokers and criminal gangs and to a lesser degree the Taliban, Western experts say. That makes it difficult for the government to establish control in areas where the economy is driven by black-market opium sales, despite a small but effective counter-narcotics force.
"Afghanistan is to turn into a narco-state unless and until there is a comprehensive strategy that is adopted now," said Ashita Mittal, deputy representative of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime in Afghanistan. "Time is not on our side."
Increased production has been driven by unusually high opium prices, but more cultivation of Afghanistan's premier cash crop is also an indication that Afghans are turning to illicit markets and crops as the real economy shrinks in anticipation of the withdrawal of foreign combat troops by the end of next year.
The exact figure for 2013 is still unclear, but the U.N. said indications are it will surpass the 154,000 hectares planted in 2012.
Afghanistan is the world's largest producer of opium, the raw ingredient in heroin, and last year provided about 75% of the global crop, a figure that may jump to 90% this year because of the increase in cultivation.
Crop sales mostly fund local power brokers and criminal gangs and to a lesser degree the Taliban, Western experts say. That makes it difficult for the government to establish control in areas where the economy is driven by black-market opium sales, despite a small but effective counter-narcotics force.
"Afghanistan is to turn into a narco-state unless and until there is a comprehensive strategy that is adopted now," said Ashita Mittal, deputy representative of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime in Afghanistan. "Time is not on our side."
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