KABUL—Opium production has soared to "frightening record levels" in Afghanistan, which now has more land producing drugs than Columbia, Bolivia and Peru combined, the United Nations said on Monday.
Afghanistan is locked in a vicious circle where drug money feeds both the Taliban insurgency and official corruption which in turn weaken the government's hold of large parts of the country and allows more opium to be produced.
The area of Afghan land where opium poppies are grown rose by 17 percent to 193,000 hectares in 2007 from 165,000 last year and this year's harvest was 8,200 tonnes, up from 6,100 tonnes in 2006, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said.
Afghanistan produced 93 percent of the world's opium in 2007, up from 92 percent last year, the annual UNODC report said.
"No other country has produced narcotics on such a deadly scale since China in the 19th century," a UNODC statement said.
Most Afghan opium is processed to make heroin and smuggled out of the country to Europe and the Middle East where it fuels addiction and crime.
Here are some key facts from the report and the opium cultivation cycle in Afghanistan.
Poppies Bloom With Instability and Violence:
•Some 80 percent of opium poppies were grown in a handful of provinces along the border with Pakistan, where instability is greatest, the UNODC said.
Helmand, Top Opium Producing Province:
•The volatile southern province of Helmand, where the Taliban insurgency is concentrated, produced more than half of Afghanistan's opium crop last year. Opium cultivation rose 48 percent to 102,770 hectares in Helmand in the past year.
Afghanistan Is the World's Top Producer:
•"The amount of Afghan land used for growing opium is now larger than the combined total under coca cultivation in Latin America," the UNODC said.
Successful Control Efforts In North:
•In the more peaceful north of Afghanistan there has been some progress. Out of 34 Afghan provinces, the number of those declared opium-free more than doubled to 13 in 2007 from six last year—most of them in the north and centre of the country.
The Climate Also Aids Poppy Cultivation:
•The opium poppy, botanical name "Papaver somniferum", flourishes in warm dry climates. It has higher drought-resistance than most other crops, particularly wheat, but needs to be on well-irrigated land.
Fast Turnover From Planting to Harvest:
•The planting cycle is six to seven months. Its distinctive brightly coloured flowers appear three months after seeds are planted. In Afghanistan, poppy flowers are normally white or purple but they can also be red. Petals fall away to expose a spherical seed pod. Inside it is the opaque, milky sap that is opium in its natural form.
Harvesting and Refining:
•Sap is extracted by slitting the capsule. Farmers collect the oozing gum and wrap the lumps of opium in plastic. Each capsule is slit six or seven times before all the sap is drained.
•Farmers can process the hundreds of seeds left inside the capsule to make edible oil. Dried stalks and empty pods are used as animal fodder.
Selling the Opium:
•Most Afghan opium is bought directly from farmers by buyers and dealers. The UNODC found the average farm-gate price of fresh opium at harvest time had decreased from $94 per kilogram (2.2 lb) to $86 over the last year.
•The merchant or broker arranges for the pungent gum-like opium to be transported to a refinery, from where it emerges as a compact morphine brick. The morphine base can be smoked in a pipe or be further processed into heroin.
Sources: Reuters, UNODC
Opium production in Afghanistan is concentrated in the south of the country where the Taliban insurgency is most virulent.
"Some 80 percent of opium poppies were grown in a handful of provinces along the border with Pakistan, where instability is greatest," the UNODC said.
The southern province of Helmand, where mostly British troops are engaged in almost clashes with Taliban rebels, produced more than half of Afghanistan's opium crop.
"Helmand has single-handedly become the world's biggest source of illicit drugs, surpassing the output of entire countries like Colombia (coca), Morocco (cannabis), and Myanmar (opium) which have populations up to 20 times larger," said the UNODC.
'Not Yet Hopeless'
There is a direct link between the degree of insecurity and the level of drug production, the UNODC said, and tackling the Taliban insurgency is key to stemming opium cultivation.
"Where anti-government forces reign, poppies flourish," said UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa.
By contrast, in the more peaceful north of Afghanistan, there has been some progress. Out of 34 Afghan provinces, the number of those declared opium-free more than doubled to 13 in 2007 from six last year, mostly in the north and centre of the country.
"The Afghan opium situation looks grim, but it is not yet hopeless," Costa said.
Opium production has risen in Afghanistan every year in Afghanistan since U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban from power in late 2001 and comes despite hundreds of millions of dollars of international aid spent trying to eliminate the problem.
The United States has budgeted $449 million to tackle opium production in Afghanistan in this year alone.
The UNODC said poverty and lack of alternative crops was not a factor influencing farmers' decision to plant poppies as the main growing regions in the south of the country had some of the richest and most fertile land in the whole of Afghanistan.
Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar drastically reduced opium production in Afghanistan during his last year in power, issuing a religious edict banning the crop and threatening harsh punishments in areas the movement held under its strict control.
Now, the report said, the Taliban had reversed its policy.
"What used to be considered a sin is now being encouraged," Costa said.
He called on Western troops in Afghanistan to do more to help Afghan forces stamp out opium production and on U.N. member states to add the names of a dozen drug traffickers to a list al Qaeda and Taliban suspects so as to seize their assets, ban their travel and facilitate their extradition and trial.
Costa also urged the Afghan the government to get tough on corruption and punish corrupt officials.
"Short-term greed is undermining the long-term needs of Afghanistan," he said.
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