Poppy harvests and opium production have fallen by 95% in Afghanistan since the Taliban government banned the crop, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in a statement released on Sunday.
However, the UNODC is concerned about the “humanitarian consequences for the many vulnerable rural communities” of this sudden decline in Afghanistan’s opium economy, while farmers have had to resort to much less lucrative alternative crops.
In April 2022, eight months after the Taliban returned to power, its supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada banned the cultivation of the plant from which opium and heroin are made.
According to the UNODC report, poppy cultivation plunged by 95%, from 233,000 hectares at the end of 2022 to 10,800 hectares in 2023. Estimated opium production did the same, falling from 6,200 tons to 333 tons in 2023.
Farmers’ income, estimated at $1.36 billion in 2022, has plunged 92% to $110 million this year, according to UNODC estimates, while the country’s already struggling economy is also suffering loss of this manna suffers.
Last year, poppies accounted for nearly a third (29%) by value of Afghanistan’s total agricultural production, the world’s largest producer.
“Today, the Afghan people urgently need humanitarian assistance (…) to absorb the shock of loss of income and save lives,” said UNODC Executive Director Ghada Waly.
“For all other crops, such as cotton and wheat, farmers need much more water,” she added while introducing this report, as the Central Asian country “is experiencing its third year of drought.”
According to satellite images analyzed by the UN agency, poppy production has collapsed across Afghanistan and even disappeared completely in 24 of the 44 provinces.
The ban on poppy cultivation led to an increase in wheat production, which has a similar crop cycle. But grain production is still not enough to truly alleviate the country’s food insecurity.
The decline in opium production also risks boosting the production and consumption of synthetic drugs, such as methamphetamine, which is currently exploding in this country where drug addiction rates are very high, warns the UNODC.
The Afghan ministry’s drug department said it agreed with the UNODC report on poppy area estimates “to a certain extent.”