Opium cultivation rose by 19 percent in Afghanistan this year, the UN reported yesterday, despite a Taliban government ban that almost eradicated the crop.
Currently, 12,800 hectares of poppies are cultivated in Afghanistan, where up to 80 percent of the population depends on agriculture, a new survey by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) showed, the agency said in a statement.
The 19 percent increase year-on-year remains far below the 232,000 hectares cultivated when Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada banned the crop in April 2022, nearly a year after the Taliban returned to power, the UN agency said.
Photo:AFP
The center of poppy cultivation has also shifted and is now concentrated in northeastern provinces instead of in the Taliban strongholds of southern Afghanistan, it said.
In May, clashes between farmers and brigades sent to destroy their poppy fields resulted in several deaths in northeastern Badakhshan.
Following the poppy ban, prices soared for the resin from which opium and heroin are made. During the first half of this year, prices stabilized at about US$730 per kilogram, compared with about US$100 per kilogram before 2022, the UN drugs agency said.
For years Afghanistan was the world’s biggest supplier of opium and heroin. Many farmers in Afghanistan, one of the poorest countries in the world, were hit hard financially by the ban and have not been able to reap the same profits from alternative crops.
Even legal crops are only a short-term solution, “so the focus should be on job creation in non-farm industries,” the International Crisis Group said.
The UNODC and the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan called for international support for farmers to transition to alternative crops and livelihoods, something the Taliban government has requested.
“With opium cultivation remaining at a low level in Afghanistan, we have the opportunity and responsibility to support Afghan farmers to develop sustainable sources of income free from illicit markets,” UNODC executive director Ghada Waly said in the statement.
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
CARGO PLANE VECTOR: Officials said they believe that attacks involving incendiary devices on planes was the work of Russia’s military intelligence agency the GRU Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence was behind a plot to put incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes headed to North America, including one that caught fire at a courier hub in Germany and another that ignited in a warehouse in England. Poland last month said that it had arrested four people suspected to be linked to a foreign intelligence operation that carried out sabotage and was searching for two others. Lithuania’s prosecutor general Nida Grunskiene on Tuesday said that there were an unspecified number of people detained in several countries, offering no elaboration. The events come as Western officials say
Hundreds of thousands of Guyana citizens living at home and abroad would receive a payout of about US$478 each after the country announced it was distributing its “mind-boggling” oil wealth. The grant of 100,000 Guyanese dollars would be available to any citizen of the South American country aged 18 and older with a valid passport or identification card. Guyanese citizens who normally live abroad would be eligible, but must be in Guyana to collect the payment. The payout was originally planned as a 200,000 Guyanese dollar grant for each household in the country, but was reframed after concerns that some citizens, including
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered