Poppy Cultivation in Afghanistan

In News

• Recently, a new report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) was released highlighting the cultivation of Poppy in Afghanistan.

Key Points

• Demand and need driven cultivation: 
  • Driven by the demand for heroin and other opioids, mostly in the West, Afghanistan’s poppy farmers have figured out that in a broken country where there are no jobs, and the de facto government has no money, poppy guarantees survival.

Image Courtesy: IE 

• Thriving industry in Afghanistan: 
  • Afghanistan’s illicit narcotics industry thrived under the puritanical first Taliban regime, it flourished through two decades of democracy, and it continues to do so under the new Taliban regime.
  • Eighty percent of the world’s opiates come from Afghanistan.
• Poppy Cultivation: 
  • Land: In 2021 (October and November are the sowing season), it increased by 32 per cent over the previous year. 
    • Last year, poppy was sown on 233,000 hectares, and in some places, farmers even replaced traditional crops with poppy.
  • Climate: If the harvest (in spring) had not been affected by a drought that hit many parts of Afghanistan, there would have been a bumper crop.

Image Courtesy: IE 

• Price spike: 
  • A ban on cultivation imposed by the Taliban in April 2022, exempted the standing crop and harvest, and sent the price of opium shooting.
• Alternatives: 
  • The 2021 harvest of 6,200 tonnes, 10 per cent less than in 2021, could be converted into 350-380 tonnes of export-quality heroin. 

Global Scenario

• The supply source for this huge underground economy is now concentrated in three areas: 
  • Afghanistan, 
  • South-East Asia (mostly Myanmar) and 
  • Latin America (Mexico and Colombia). 
• Together, they supply nearly all the world’s illicit opium and heroin, but Afghanistan stands out among this group, accounting for around 90% of global illicit opium production in recent years. 

Impact on India

• Rising health costs: 
  • Among illicit narcotics, opiates are also the most costly in terms of treatment, medical care and, arguably, drug-related violence. 
  • In addition, heroin is the drug most associated with injection, which brings about a host of acute and chronic health problems, including the transmission of blood-borne diseases such as HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C. 
  • 45% of Heroin in India originates from Afghanistan.
• Stability and security: 
  • Beyond its health impact, the illicit opiate industry also has a detrimental effect on stability and security in a number of places, including through the funding it provides for insurgents in production areas, particularly in Afghanistan. 
• Terrorist angle:
  • There is ‘deep concern about links between illicit drug production, trafficking and involvement of terrorist groups, criminals and transnational organized crime.’

Reasons Behind the Drug Menace in India

• Misguided Youth and Peer Pressure psychology
• Lack of awareness about socio-legal and health consequences
• Proximity with Golden Crescent and Golden Triangle:
  • Golden Triangle: 
    • It includes the regions of Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand. 
    • It is Southeast Asia’s main opium-producing region and one of the oldest narcotics supply routes to Europe and North America.
  • Golden Crescent: 
    • It includes Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan.
    • It is a principal global site for opium production and distribution.       

Benefits

• Farmer’s income increase:
  • The income of farmers from opium sales more than tripled from $425 million in 2021 to $1.4 billion in 2022
  • 29 per cent of the Afghan agricultural sector’s total value in 2022, higher by 20 percentage points over the previous year.
• Employment generation:
  • As a labour intensive crop, poppy was a great source of employment in rural Afghanistan, and led to other trickle-down economic activities. Distributing the work of revenue collection was also a way to keep the factions within from rebelling.

Challenges being faced in Afghanistan

• Financial: Still international outcasts and with no access to global funding, they are scrambling to raise money by levying taxes, as humanitarian aid keeps Afghanistan going.
• Regional concern:
  • Russia and Afghanistan’s Central Asian neighbours view drugs as a top concern, more perhaps than the threat of religious extremism, radicalisation, and terrorism. 
  • India has voiced concerns about it from time to time. 
  • At the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation security meetings, the threat of terrorism and drug trafficking from Afghanistan are discussed as inter-related threats to regional and global security.

Way Ahead

• International cooperation: Foster international cooperation for fighting the enduring problem of drug trafficking. The development of international accountability mechanisms and best practices would greatly increase interception capacity. 
• Global Monitoring: Enhance expert access to the dark web in order to take down online markets and platforms. Implement real-time data monitoring systems for promptly detecting and addressing drug market changes. 
• People-centered Approach: Implement an integrated, people-centred and human-rights based approach to empowering African societies to develop sustainable solutions to drug use.
• Public-private Partnerships: Improve government response to drug trafficking on the internet by forging public/private partnerships with internet service providers, tech companies, shipping and mailing companies. 
• Awareness-Raising and Communication: Use fact-based information to raise awareness of the potential harm from non-medical use of cannabis. Need to close the gap between perception and reality by educating young people and safeguarding public health.

Source: IE