Afghan opium output halves due to crop infection: UN

DPA

KABUL - The production of opium - the raw material for heroin and a major source of revenue for the Taliban insurgency - has halved in Afghanistan due to crop infection this year, but prices have nearly tripled, a UN report released Thursday said.

The sharp drop in output is largely due to bad weather and a plant infection hitting the major poppy-crop growing provinces of Helmand and Kandahar particularly hard, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said.

\”As a result of the damage, yield fell 48 percent to 29.2 kg per hectare, from 56.1 kg per hectare compared to the previous year,\” it said.

The report said the area of land under poppy cultivation remained stable in 2010 at 123,000 hectares.

Some 98 percent of the all opium poppy was cultivated in nine provinces in the country\’s western and southern regions, it said, adding, \”Helmand and Kandahar took the lion\’s share with Helmand alone accounting for 53 percent of total opium cultivation in Afghanistan.\”

The two provinces, where Taliban are most active, are the focus of a US military surge this year, with the bulk of 30,000 extra US troops moved to Afghanistan this year deployed there.

\”These regions are dominated by insurgency and organised crime networks,\” UNODC executive director Yury Fedotov said in a statement. \”This underscores the link between opium poppy cultivation and insecurity in Afghanistan, a trend we have observed since 2007.\”

Taliban militants are believed to fund their insurgency against the Afghan government and the 150,000 US and NATO troops by collecting tax from opium money.

Fedotov cautioned against \”false optimism\” because of the drop in production, saying the rising price for opium might make the market again lucrative for growers.

In 2010, the average farm-gate price of dry opium at harvest time was recorded at $169 per kg, a 164-percent increase over 2009, when the price was $64 per kg, the report found.

The rising prices could also prompt former poppy farmers to think twice about having switched to wheat, an important alternative crop in Afghanistan, Fedotov said.

His concerns were echoed by Afghan Minister for Counter-Narcotics Zarar Ahmad Muqbel Osmani, who said that the high price might lure farmers in other parts of Afghanistan to resume growing poppy.

\”The price of opium is a very serious issue and we are concerned that next year the farmers and members of drug mafia will start cultivating poppies in other parts of the country,\” Osmani said.

He said all the 20 previously poppy-free provinces had remained so, while cultivation was almost zero in five others.

Fedotov said that any meaningful fight against Afghan opium production would also require the international community to curb demand in the region and western countries.

\”As long as demand drives this market, there will always be another farmer to replace one we convince to stop cultivating, and another trafficker to replace one we catch.\”

Afghanistan supplies more than 90 percent of the world\’s opium.

Thursday\’s report said that the government-led forced eradication programme was at its lowest level this year. Afghan forces eradicated 2,316 hectares of poppy crops, more than half of them in Helmand province.

NATO has also stepped up its targeting of opium convoys and traffickers, arresting dozens of suspects and seizing thousands of tonnes of the illicit drug.

On Wednesday, Baz Mohammed Ahmadi, the deputy interior minister, said nearly eight tonnes of opium, heroin and hashish had been seized by Afghan forces in the past six