March 01, 2008	Saturday	Safar 22, 1429

WASHINGTON, Feb 29: A growing number of people in Afghanistan are involved in the booming opium trade, according to a State Department report on drug trafficking worldwide released on Friday.

“Narcotics production in Afghanistan hit historic highs in 2007 for the second straight year,” said the 600-page document that analyses what the US government sees as achievements and failings in the fight against illegal drugs.

Nationally about 14.3 per cent of Afghans were involved in poppy growing in 2007 up from 12.6 per cent in 2006, it said.

Afghanistan in 2007 produced 93 per cent of the world’s opium (up from 90 per cent in 2006) and grew 193,000 hectares of poppies, up 17 per cent from the previous year, the report says citing a US estimate.

“Favourable weather conditions and expanded planting in more fertile agricultural areas also boosted Afghanistan’s yield per hectare,” the report added, noting “the export value of this year’s illicit opium harvest, $4 billion, made up more than a third of Afghanistan’s combined total GDP of $11.5 billion.” “Afghanistan’s drug trade is undercutting efforts to establish a stable democracy with a licit economic free market in the country,” the report said.

“The Afghan government must take decisive action against poppy cultivation soon to turn back the drug threat before its further growth and consolidation make it even more difficult to defeat,” it added.—AFP