UNITED NATIONS, Nov 24: The drug problem in Afghanistan could remain severe because of renewed insecurity, continued corruption and free opium seed distribution by traffickers, while the area of Afghanistan under opium cultivation dipped 21 per cent in 2005, according to a United Nations report released on Wednesday.

Briefing reporters in New York on the Afghan Opium Survey, Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, warned that these factors are combining to pose “a risk that opium cultivation may not decline any further in 2006 when we certify it next year, namely for the harvest period that just started.”

He said other obstacles to further progress include farmer dissatisfaction with the level of development assistance and a decreased eradication effort.

According to the survey, 104,000 hectares of land in Afghanistan is under opium cultivation. Provinces varied widely in the change in cultivation over the year, with Kandahar experiencing a major decline – 96 per cent – and some others increasing as much as 350 per cent.