Afghanistan ‘set for record opium harvest’

Afghanistan ‘set for record opium harvest’
By Aunohita Mojumdar in Kabul
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Published: August 27 2007 15:02 | Last updated: August 27 2007 15:02


This year’s opium harvest in Afghanistan is projected to reach a record high, up 34 per cent on 2006, with Helmand province “single-handedly” becoming the world’s largest source of illicit drugs, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said on Monday.

Better yields have combined with a 17 per cent in crease in land under cultivation to undermine poppy eradication efforts and produce a record harvest of 8,200 tonnes. With the increase in opium production, Afghanistan now accounts for 92 per cent of global production. The area of opium cultivation in Afghanistan is more than the combined total coca cultivation area in Latin America, the UNODC stated.

Most of the increased production is concentrated in unstable southern provinces that together account for 80 per cent of cultivation. The largest increase has been in the volatile province of Helmand, where British troops are fighting a tough battle against the insurgency. The number of northern and central provinces free of opium more than doubled, from six to 13. In Balkh, a northern province bordering Uzbekistan, opium cultivation has been brought down to zero from 7,200 hectares last year.

Referring to divergent trends in the north and south, Antonio Maria Costa, UNODC executive director, said poverty could not be used as an excuse since the south had some of the most fertile land, and provinces in the centre and north, where per capita income is half that of the south, are opium-free.

The UNODC chief said poppy-growing was linked to insecurity and inversely related to the degree of government control. He has called for higher rewards for non-opium farmers and warned that delay in disbursing assistance could lead to opium-free provinces sliding back to poppy cultivation. Calling for greater deterrents to dissuade farmers from planting poppies, he called for an end to current practices that enable rich land lords to evade eradication.

The total area under op ium cultivation increased from 165,000 ha to 193,000 ha, with Helmand alone ac counting for 102,770 ha, an increase of 48 per cent over last year. The UNODC said Helmand, with a population of just 2.5m, had “single-handedly become the world’s largest source of illicit drugs” surpassing entire countries such as Colombia, Morocco and Burma.

The UNODC called for Nato to extend more active support to counter-narcotics operations. Nato-led ISAF forces are not involved in eradication. Troops in Helmand were earlier accused of sending out wrong signals to poppy farmers by saying they were not in the business of eradication.

British officials based in Kabul refused to comment on the projected bumper crop in Helmand. ISAF officials stated that they were not directly involved in eradicating opium.