Opium poppy cultivation fell 95% in Afghanistan after the Taliban took power

Afghan farmers harvest opium resin in a poppy field in Nangarhar province on April 17, 2018 (Photo: AFP).

A report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) shows that the area under opium poppy cultivation has decreased by about 95%, from 233,000 hectares at the end of 2022 to 10,800 hectares in 2023.

Opium production also dropped sharply from 6,200 tons to 333 tons in 2023.

Estimates of this year's exportable harvest range from 24 to 38 tonnes of heroin, compared with 350 to 580 tonnes last year, according to the report.

Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban government has vowed to end illegal drug production in Afghanistan. In April 2022, the Taliban banned the cultivation of poppies, which are used to produce opium and heroin.

In the report, UNODC warned of “potential humanitarian consequences for many vulnerable rural communities” from the sudden decline of Afghanistan’s opium economy, as growers are forced to switch to much less lucrative alternative crops.

Farmers' income, estimated at $1.36 billion in 2022, fell 92% to $110 million this year, according to UNODC.

Last year, opium poppies accounted for nearly a third of the total value of agricultural production in Afghanistan, the world's top producer.

“Today, the people of Afghanistan need urgent humanitarian assistance to overcome the shock of lost income and sustain their lives,” said UNODC Executive Director Ghada Waly.

“For all other production sectors like cotton and wheat, they need more water,” she said at a press conference to launch the report, while Afghanistan is experiencing “three consecutive years of drought.”

The Taliban government's Interior Ministry's Counter Narcotics Bureau said it agreed "to some extent" with the UNODC report's estimate of opium poppy cultivation.

But the bureau rejected other contents in the report, such as information related to opium production and socio-economic data, saying they were not based on field surveys but on satellite images and data from previous years.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-gioi/dien-tich-cay-thuoc-phien-giam-95-o-afghanistan-sau-khi-taliban-nam-quyen-20231106101232430.htm