LONDON: An attempt to curb heroin production in Afghanistan has been overwhelmed by the country’s most valuable ever opium poppy harvest, according to a UN crop survey published on Friday.

It says 3,400 metric tons of opium will be produced in Afghanistan this year — higher than the 2,700 tons estimated earlier this year — and higher even than the 2,000 tons harvest before the Taliban banned production. The survey shows Afghanistan is set to resume its place as the source of 75 per cent of the world’s heroin.

The UK took the lead role in developing a UN eradication programme this year. Opium production under the Taliban fell to only 185 tons during 2001. In January the interim Afghan government announced a ban on opium poppy cultivation, trafficking and abuse. The UK foreign secretary, Jack Straw, claimed some early success in destroying almost a third of the country’s poppy fields.

But the new UN figures show the eradication programme has made a very limited impact. The report published on Friday says the absence of the usual harvest in spring 2001 pushed up opium prices to unprecedented levels, creating a powerful incentive for farmers to plant the 2002 crop.

“The power vacuum in Kabul caused by the aftermath of September 11 2001 enabled farmers to replant opium poppy starting in October and November last year. By the time the Afghan interim administration issued a strong ban in January most opium poppy fields had already started to sprout.”

The UN survey used high resolution satellite pictures and visits by field surveyors to 923 Afghan villages to reach its estimate that opium poppy production this year is even higher than in 2000.

The UN also says the average price for Afghan fresh opium rose to $350 per kilo in early 2002, and with 74,000 hectares under cultivation and a high yield “the total income for the Afghan opium poppy farmers could reach several hundred million US dollars this year. The value of the 2002 production will then reach a record high, far above earlier years.”

The survey says this is far higher even than the annual income in the 1990s, when it varied from $50 million to $200 million during the bumper harvest in 1999.

The UN estimates the average income per poppy farmer will reach several thousand dollars this year compared with only $400 to $600 in previous years. The problem for the eradication programme is that it is offering farmers just $350 to give up one-fifth of a hectare of opium poppy production.

The public burning of two tons of seized heroin and opium in July near the football stadium in Kabul was hailed as a major step forward.

The UN says its findings make it “extremely important that there is greater international support to interdict the trade and offer alternatives to farmers”.

Roger Howard, the chief executive of Drugscope, the British drugs organization, said the rise in opium production was even larger than expected.

“This is a major concern. If we are to halt the rise in opium production, the international community must fulfil its commitment to help rebuild Afghan society, giving communities and individuals other options. Enforcement on its own is not the solution.”—Dawn/The Guardian News Service.