UN: Afghanistan’s opium production on the rise

 

TT-AFP

 

Published 14.05

 

Taliban members destroy a poppy field in Washir, Afghanistan, in 2022. Heroin is extracted from poppies. File photo. Photo: Abdul Khaliq/AP/TT

Poppy cultivation and opium production in Afghanistan are surging for the first time since 2021, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Compared to last year, poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has risen by 330 percent—from 10,000 hectares to 43,000 hectares. Production has increased by 400 percent.

According to the UN, the country’s widespread poverty and its well-established illegal market for opium production are the underlying causes:

“The increase highlights the difficulty of curbing illicit opium cultivation when impoverished farmers have no alternative means of livelihood,” says Monica Juma of the UNODC.

Production was banned entirely in 2022 after the Taliban seized power. Prior to that, Afghanistan was the world’s third-largest producer and a primary source of heroin for Europe and Asia.

The UN emphasizes that it is too early to determine whether this increase is temporary or otherwise.