Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have cracked down on poppy cultivationImage: Oriane Zerah/picture alliance/abaca.

Mon 25 March 2024:

The Afghan caretaker government has demolished 1,250 drug processing laboratories across the country since assuming power in August 2021, Afghanistan’s TV channel TOLOnews has reported.

“About 1,250 alcohol and drug processing factories in various provinces of the country have been destroyed, and the serious fight against the cultivation, trafficking, and trade of drugs in the country continues,” the report quoted Haseebullah Ahmadi, head of the counter-narcotics office of the Ministry of Interior Affairs, as saying on Saturday.

Drug trafficking, cultivation and trade in Afghanistan have nearly reached zero, said Ahmadi, adding that whoever still engages in the field will be referred to judicial organs.

The Afghan caretaker government banned the cultivation of opium poppy and the trade of opium in Afghanistan in April 2022.

Opium supply drop

Opium production in Afghanistan has plummeted since the Taliban banned cultivation of the poppy plant, according to a UN report published on Sunday.

Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers pledged to wipe out the country’s drug industry, banning poppy cultivation in April 2022.

Poppy plants are the source of opium and heroin. Afghanistan was the world’s biggest opium producer and a major source for heroin in Europe and Asia before the Taliban takeover.

What did the report on Afghan opium production say?

The report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) found that poppy cultivation had dropped by an estimated 95% over the past year, from 233,000 hectares (575,755 acres) at the end of 2022 to 10,800 hectares in 2023.

Opium production also dropped from 6,200 tons to 333 tons in 2023.

According to the report, this year’s harvest amounts to 24-38 tons of exportable heroin, much less than the 350-580 tons estimated for 2022.

Farmer’s incomes have fallen by 92% this year, from an estimated $1.36 billion to $110 million.

In 2022, poppy crops made up almost a third by value of total agricultural production in Afghanistan.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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