KABUL: Afghanistan saw a 10 per cent jump in opium cultivation this year because of bumper harvests, with eradication efforts collapsing due to growing insecurity and declining international aid to combat drugs, the UN said on Sunday.

Cultivation dropped last year due to drought but it has been on the rise in the past decade, fuelling the Taliban insurgency and spurring a growing crisis of drug addiction despite costly US-led counternarcotics programmes.

High levels of cultivation this year meant the estimated opium production soared 43 per cent to 4,800 tons, a UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report said, underscoring a “worrying reversal” in efforts to combat the scourge of drugs.


Opium production jumped by 43pc to 4,800 tons this year, says UN


“The cultivation has increased by 10 per cent this year compared to the same time in 2015 — from 183,000 hectares to 201,000 hectares,” counternarcotics minister Salamat Azimi told reporters while releasing the UN report.

The statistics represent the third-highest level of cultivation in Afghanistan in more than two decades — after a record high in 2014 and 2013.

Officials cited favourable weather, rising insecurity and falling international donor support as the main reasons for the increase in cultivation in Afghanistan, the world’s leading producer of opium.

Ninety-three per cent of the cultivation took place in the southern, western and eastern parts of the country, the report said.

The southern restive province of Helmand remained the country’s top poppy-cultivating province, followed by Badghis, Kandahar, Uruzgan, Nangarhar and Farah — all hotbeds of militant activity.

“I believe with the existing equipment, facilities and civilian task force, we cannot fight the cultivation of poppy in insecure areas,” said Baz Mohammad Ahmadi, deputy minister of interior for counternarcotics.

“The challenges of deteriorating security in different parts of the country took away the opportunities to destroy poppy farms.”

Eradication efforts appeared to have collapsed. A total of 355 hectares of poppy eradication was carried out this year, a 91 per cent plunge from 2015.

“In 2016, farmers’ resistance against poppy eradication operations was occasionally expressed through direct attacks on eradication teams,” the UN report said.

“No eradication took place in the provinces with high levels of opium poppy cultivation due to the extremely poor security situation in those areas and logistical/financial challenges to organise the eradication teams on time.”

Afghanistan saw a drop in opium cultivation last year for the first time since 2009, a UN report said, citing drought as a key reason for the decline. But that was seen as a temporary blip.

Poppy farmers in Afghanistan are often taxed by the Taliban, who use the cash to help fund their insurgency against government and Nato forces.

“Most of the conflicts in Afghanistan are financed by income from poppy. Anywhere you see poppy in Afghanistan you see fighting there,” said Ahmadi.

International donors have splurged billions of dollars on counternarcotics efforts in Afghanistan over the past decade, including efforts to encourage farmers to switch to other cash crops such as saffron. But those efforts have shown little results.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2016

Opinion

Editorial

Afghan turbulence
Updated 19 Mar, 2024

Afghan turbulence

RELATIONS between the newly formed government and Afghanistan’s de facto Taliban rulers have begun on an...
In disarray
19 Mar, 2024

In disarray

IT is clear that there is some bad blood within the PTI’s ranks. Ever since the PTI lost a key battle over ...
Festering wound
19 Mar, 2024

Festering wound

PROTESTS unfolded once more in Gwadar, this time against the alleged enforced disappearances of two young men, who...
Defining extremism
Updated 18 Mar, 2024

Defining extremism

Redefining extremism may well be the first step to clamping down on advocacy for Palestine.
Climate in focus
18 Mar, 2024

Climate in focus

IN a welcome order by the Supreme Court, the new government has been tasked with providing a report on actions taken...
Growing rabies concern
18 Mar, 2024

Growing rabies concern

DOG-BITE is an old problem in Pakistan. Amid a surfeit of public health challenges, rabies now seems poised to ...