In accordance with a brand new report by the UN Workplace on Medicine and Crime (UNODC) launched on Thursday, 10,200 hectares have been below opium cultivation this 12 months, down from 12,800 hectares in 2024 and much beneath the 232,000 hectares recorded earlier than the ban.
Manufacturing of the drug dropped much more steeply, falling by virtually a 3rd to 296 tons, and farmer’s earnings from opium gross sales has virtually halved over the interval.
Within the report, UNODC stresses the necessity to mix eradication efforts with assist for different livelihoods and demand-reduction measures.
Whereas many growers have switched to cereals and different crops, worsening drought and low rainfall have left over 40 per cent of farmland barren.
On the identical time, the return of round 4 million Afghans from neighbouring nations has elevated strain on jobs and assets, elevating issues that financial hardship might make illicit cultivation engaging once more.
With assist from the United Nations Workplace on Medicine and Crime (UNODC), Zahoor and 1000’s of different Afghan farmers have transitioned from opium to authorized farming, turning land right into a supply of hope and sustainable earnings. That is additionally serving to to make the world safer from medicine.
Artificial drug market development
In the meantime, artificial drug manufacturing, significantly methamphetamine, goes up, and seizures in and round Afghanistan have been 50 per cent larger by late 2024 in comparison with the earlier 12 months.
UNODC warns that organised crime teams might more and more favour artificial medicine, that are simpler to supply, more durable to detect and fewer susceptible to local weather shocks.
Georgette Gagnon, Deputy Particular Consultant of the Secretary-Normal for Afghanistan and Officer-in-Cost of the UN political mission within the nation (UNAMA), says that the issue extends past Afghanistan’s borders:
“The dynamics of provide, demand and trafficking contain each Afghan and worldwide actors. Addressing this problem requires collaboration amongst key stakeholders.”
The report requires counternarcotics methods which transcend opium, integrating artificial medicine into monitoring, interdiction and prevention efforts.
