AFTER SEVEN years of extraordinary expansion, Afghanistan's harvest of poppies used to produce opium has declined by 6 per cent from a record high in 2007, according to the annual opium survey by the United Nations.
The amount of land used to cultivate opium declined by 19 per cent to about 388,000 acres.
"We are finally seeing the results of years of effort of making some areas completely free of opium harvesting," said Antonio Maria Costa, the executive director of the UN office on drugs and crime, which produces an annual opium survey. Opium production is now concentrated in seven provinces in the southwestern part of the country.
Afghanistan is responsible for providing 95 per cent of the world's opium-based drugs such as heroin. The decline is significant - the harvest previously was growing by up to 20 per cent a year. But while the trend is raising hopes that the anti-drug efforts of the Afghan government and its western allies are succeeding, there is evidence that powerful factions in the country such as theTaliban are also trying to squelch production. The insurgents are involved in poppy production and want to drive up prices to raise cash for the insurgency.
Mr Costa's UN agency issues this annual report after gathering information throughout the year via satellite photographs followed up by surveillance on the ground.
This year's turnaround was also attributed to a drought and global food shortage that drove up the price of wheat, making it almost as profitable to farm as opium.
Mr Costa estimates taxing poppy growth at 10 per cent earns the Taliban $75 million (€59 million) a year, while it gains about $300 million through opium production. - (LA Times-Washington Post)