Kabul, April 19: Opium poppies are being grown this year in parts of Afghanistan where last year there were none, but overall cultivation of the drug will decrease slightly, the United Nations said in a report on Monday.
Four provinces in the east, west and north of Afghanistan that had been “poppy-free” have returned to cultivation, the U.N. drug agency UNODC said in its “Opium Winter Rapid Assessment” report, a forecast of trends for the year ahead.
But Helmand, a critical southern province where around half Afghanistan’s poppy is grown, expects to see a slight decrease in the amount of farmland devoted to poppy this year, which will be enough to outweigh substantial increases elsewhere.
Opium prices in Afghanistan more than doubled last year after an unidentified blight cut production in half, the United Nations said, creating a “cash bonanza” for many farmers that encouraged cultivation.
Three quarters of the people surveyed cited the “high sales price of opium” as a driving force behind their decision to sow a crop this year. Between Feb 2010 and Feb 2011, dry opium prices tripled and fresh opium prices more than doubled.
–Agencies