Photo:
Abdullah Shaheen/IRIN |
| Young
men in the poppy fields of Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan. Helmand
alone will account for about 50 percent of Afghanistan's estimated 2007
production of 8,200 metric tonnes of opium |
KABUL, 27 August 2007 (IRIN) - Opium production in Afghanistan
increased by 17 percent in 2007, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said
on 27 August.
"No other country in the world has ever produced narcotics
on such a deadly scale," said the Afghanistan Opium Survey 2007, an annual
assessment prepared by UNODC and the government of Afghanistan.
Afghan
farmers have cultivated poppies on 193,000 hectares which will produce 8,200
metric tonnes of opium in 2007, the survey indicated. Afghanistan alone accounts
for 93 percent of the heroin processed in the world.
The UN has warned
that Afghanistan's opium production has reached a "frighteningly new level"
which threatens the war-battered country's painful struggle for stability,
reconstruction and development.
Over three million Afghans are said to
be involved in the narcotics trade (cultivation, processing and smuggling) and
the UN believes the illicit opium income fuels insurgency and other criminal
activities in Afghanistan.
Opium
production in Afghanistan in 2007 "may kill, directly or not" over 100,000
people worldwide, UNODC reported.
Most narcotics deaths are likely to
happen in China, India and southeast Asia where Afghan opium exports have
increasingly found new markets. Europe is another potential buyer of drugs
produced in landlocked Afghanistan. Over 90 percent of the heroin sold on black
markets in the UK originates from Afghanistan, according to the UN.
On
26 June UNODC said there was a significant reduction in drug addiction and abuse
everywhere in the world, except in Afghanistan where more people are falling
prey to narcotics.
Over one million Afghans are addicted to narcotics -
3.7 percent of Afghanistan's 24.5 million population, according to the Afghan
government.
Poverty driving cultivation
Most
Afghans involved in the opium trade have opted for this unlawful business in
order to alleviate their poverty, the 2007 opium survey found.
What is
driving farmers to defy the government's ban and cultivate poppy is a price for
opium that easily outstrips that of any other agricultural products.
"Most farmers (98 per cent) said they would be ready to stop opium poppy
cultivation should access to alternative livelihoods be provided," the UNODC
report said.
Afghan farmers will earn about US$1 billion (farm-gate
price) from their opium harvest in 2007, representing 13 percent of the
country's $7.5 billion total gross domestic product (GDP), the UN survey said.
The opium survey noted the vast difference in income of farmers who
cultivate opium and those who grow wheat. Gross income for wheat per hectare of
land was $546 while for opium it was $5,200.
Opium-free
provinces
However, the Afghan government has been able to take
some comfort from the UNODC report: In 2006 out of 34 Afghan provinces six were
assessed as poppy-free, while in 2007, 13 provinces, mainly in central and
northern Afghanistan, were assessed as opium-free.
"We should increase
the number of poppy-free provinces every year and gradually get Afghanistan rid
of this vicious phenomenon," Zalmai Afzali, a spokesman for Afghanistan's
Ministry of Counter Narcotics, told IRIN on 27 August.
Afghan officials,
however, warn that unless the international donor community provides generous
funding for counter-narcotics efforts, including funding for alternative
livelihoods and institution building, opium production would remain a disturbing
challenge.
Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of UNODC, has also
called for more funding to be used to curb Afghanistan's growing opium
production.
"Expenditure [on counter narcotics] is abysmally low because
of ministerial competition, corruption and bureaucratic inertia - nationally and
internationally," Costa said.
The UNODC has also called on the
government of Afghanistan to intensify its opium eradication activities and
target "rich landlords especially in the south of the country".
|
Afghanistan
poppy/opium statistics 2006-7 |
|
2006 |
Difference
|
2007 |
| Net opium poppy cultivation area
in hectares |
165,000 ha |
+17% |
193,000 ha |
| Percent of agricultural land
|
3.65% |
|
4.27 % |
| Number of poppy-free
provinces |
6 |
|
13 |
| Eradication area in
hectares |
15,300ha |
+24% |
19,047 ha |
| Potential production of opium
(in metric tonnes) |
6,100mt |
+34% |
8,200 mt |
| Percent of global production
|
92% |
|
93% |
| Number of persons involved in
opium cultivation |
2.9 million |
+14% |
3.3 million |
| Total farm-gate value of opium
production |
US$0.76 billion |
+12% |
$1 billion |
| Total farm-gate value of opium
as percent of GDP |
11% |
|
13% |
| Indicative gross income from
opium per hectare |
$4600 |
+13% |
$5200 |
| Indicative gross income from
wheat per hectare |
$530 |
+3% |
$546 |
|
Source: UNODC, Afghanistan Opium Survey 2007
|
The above article comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2007
... Payvand News - 8/28/07 ...
