Afghan opium cultivation likely to increase in 2007

Jun 26, 2007, 12:07 GMT

Kabul - Afghan opium cultivation, already producing 92 per cent of the world's opium crop, is likely to increase this year, said officials in the capital Kabul at a conference marking the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking on Tuesday.

The news of increase in cultivation following the record year in 2006 comes despite millions of dollars spent mainly by the governments of the United States and Britain in fighting the booming illicit drug business.

The amount of land used for poppy cultivation in 2006 increased about 59 per cent compared to 2005, said Christina Gynna Oguz, country representative for UN Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and William Wood, US ambassador to Afghanistan.

Though the exact figure of the lands used for poppy cultivation will be released in August this year, the officials said that based on 'preliminary reports' there has been an increase of some 10,000 hectares in cultivation in 2007.

'Although the figures are still preliminary, Afghanistan is producing at least 180,000 hectares this year. This is up from 170,000 hectares a year ago,' Wood said.

'We will have the final figures in late August. However, the yield is likely to go up because of the good weather conditions, so I fear that we will be faced with at least the same amount as last year, and perhaps even more,' Aguz said.

A UNODC annual report released in Vienna, Austria, stated that Afghanistan is responsible for 92 per cent of the world's illicit production of opium, from which heroin is derived. One decade ago, Afghanistan's share had been 52 per cent. Global opium production rose to 7,300 tons in 2006, an increase of 43 per cent compared with 2005.

In Afghanistan, cultivation is concentrated in the southern provinces, especially Helmand, which is becoming a centre of opium production, UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa warned in a statement.

'Effective surgery on Helmand's drug and insurgency cancer will rid the world of the most dangerous source of its most dangerous narcotic and go a long way to bringing security to the region,' Costa said.

'The province of Helmand itself is around 70,000 hectares under cultivation, which is three times the total area under cultivation in Myanmar,' the report said. 'So only one province (is) three times as important as the whole of Myanmar, the second largest opium producing country.'

Helmand has been the centre of militancy since the ouster of Islamic extremist Taliban regime in late 2001. Wood said farmers in the province had alternative crops, but chose to cultivate poppy or were forced by the drug traffickers to do so.

Habibullah Qaderi Afghan minister of Counter Narcotics, speaking at the same ceremony said, 'it is very difficult to give any good news this year,' referring to the upsurge in violence that mainly plagued the southern provinces, which hampered the work of counter- narcotics authorities.

Qaderi, however, said that some 27,000 hectors of poppy lands were eradicated this year by Afghan police forces, which is double the area eradicated in 2005.

Officials also said that around 90 percent of the opium was processed into heroin inside the country and that trafficking of chemical precursor which is used for the production has also gone up.

'I think it is an indication that (drug traffickers) don't feel threatened enough. It is also an indication that they have more knowledge. They are more sophisticated than they used to be, and the capacity of Afghanistan to target trafficking is not well developed,' Aguz added.

Officials also blamed the Taliban insurgents for assisting the drug barons, accusing the militants of benefiting from drug money.