AFGHANISTAN: Farmers Struggle to Kick the Opium Habit

Eulàlia Iglesias

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 25 2005 (IPS) – For the first time since 2001, Afghanistan has made a dent in its opium poppy cultivation, but experts warn that the illegal crop could easily flourish again next year unless the country makes real progress toward sustainable economic development.
According to the U.N. s 2005 Afghan Opium Survey, poppy cultivation fell 21 percent this year. One field out of five that had poppies in 2004 was planted with a legal crop in 2005, meaning that the total area of poppy fields fell from 134,000 hectares to 104,000 hectares.

According to the survey, some 50,000 Afghan farmers refrained from planting opium poppies last year because of fears of eradication, the civil and religious campaign against the drug, and stepped up law enforcement.

Still, the survey notes that during the same period, potential opium production decreased just two percent, to 4,100 tonnes, due to favourable weather and low rates of plant disease, which resulted in a much higher yield per hectare than in the previous year.

Afghanistan s first comprehensive eradication programme was initiated during the 2004-2005 growing season, and in October 2004, the government ordered provincial governors to eradicate opium fields.

The 2005 Afghan Opium Survey was launched Wednesday by Antonio Maria Costa, the head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Costa told IPS that his main concern now is about the sustainability of this situation, namely if in 2006 we will certify an additional decline or not .
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The battle is to be fought right now, which is the time of planting, he added.

At a press conference, the U.N. drug chief warned that although progress has been made, the future doesn t look so good . He described inadequate assistance to farmers, the poor security situation in some provinces, and news that traffickers were distributing free opium poppy seeds to villagers.

According to the survey, measures must also be taken to target illicit wealth belonging to corrupt officials .

To address this situation, Costa invited the international community to strengthen the financial resources to the affected regions and make sure that the money actually reaches the farmers . He said that Afghanistan needs more development because only development not eradication can guarantee long-lasting restraint from opium cultivation .

Development means investment, roads, irrigations, schools and hospitals, so development assistance can trigger a switch to other cultivation, he said.

In the past three and a half years, the international community has given over 2.5 billion dollars for reconstruction in Afghanistan. And according to the survey, the three provinces with the largest declines in opium cultivation received a very large amount of development assistance in recent months.

Afghanistan supplies 87 percent of the world s opium. However, annual gross profits to opium farmers are only about 1,800 dollars, while traffickers grossed more than 2.14 billion dollars this year.

During the 1990s, Afghanistan firmly established itself as the largest source of illicit opium and its derivative, heroin, in the world. In 2004, for the first time, opium cultivation was found in all of the country s 32 provinces, reaching an unprecedented total cultivation area of 131,000 hectares.

The survey also reports on cannabis cultivation in Afghanistan, which had not been previously measured. In 2005, farmers set aside a whopping 30,000 hectares for growing cannabis fully one-third the amount dedicated to cannabis cultivation in Morocco, the world s number one supplier of the drug, Costa noted.

And it examines drug use within the country, a generally underreported problem. According to Costa, drug addiction in Afghanistan is by far greater than has been originally estimated. Costa said that 2.2 percent of the population is using cannabis and 1 percent opium or heroin altogether, about a million people.

Around the world, over 100,000 people die annually, directly or indirectly, because of their addiction to Afghan opium.

In spite of this difficult situation, Costa told IPS that, We have won the battle against the illegal cultivation of either coca leaves or opium in many countries like Thailand, Turkey and Pakistan, and we have major declines in the Andean countries.

It will take time, but we are going to win this battle as well, he said.

 

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