Baku, November 7, AZERTAC

Opium cultivation in Afghanistan in 2024 increased by an estimated 19 per cent year-on-year to cover 12,800 hectares, according to a new survey released by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Wednesday.

The increase follows on a 95 per cent decrease in cultivation during the 2023 crop season, when the de-facto Authorities of Afghanistan enforced a ban that virtually eliminated poppy cultivation across much of the country. Despite the increase in 2024, opium poppy cultivation remains far below 2022, when an estimated 232,000 hectares were cultivated.

“With opium cultivation remaining at a low level in Afghanistan, we have the opportunity and responsibility to support Afghan farmers to develop sustainable sources of income free from illicit markets,” said Ghada Waly, Executive Director of UNODC. “The women and men of Afghanistan continue to face dire financial and humanitarian challenges, and alternative livelihoods are urgently needed.”

According to the survey findings, the geographic centre of opium cultivation has also shifted, from the south-western provinces – long the heart of Afghanistan’s opium cultivation up to and including 2023 – to the north-eastern provinces, where 59 per cent of cultivation occurred in 2024. This represents a sharp 381 per cent increase in these provinces over 2023.

Dry opium prices have stabilized to around US $730 per kilogram in the first half of 2024, up from a pre-ban average of US $100 per kilogram.

The high prices and dwindling opium stocks may encourage farmers to flout the ban, particularly in areas outside of traditional cultivation centers, including neighboring countries.

“This is important further evidence that opium cultivation has indeed been reduced, and this will be welcomed by Afghanistan’s neighbours, the region and the world,” said Roza Otunbayeva, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.

“But this also requires us to recognize that rural communities across Afghanistan have been deprived of a key income source in addition to the many other pressures they are facing, and they desperately need international support if we want this transition to be sustainable,” Otunbayeva said.