OPIUM PRODUCTION IN AFGHANISTAN UP 25 PER CENT OVER 1996 LEVELS
Press Release
SOC/NAR/767
OPIUM PRODUCTION IN AFGHANISTAN UP 25 PER CENT OVER 1996 LEVELS
19970911 VIENNA, 11 September (UN Information Service) -- Opium poppy production in Afghanistan rose to 2,800 metric tons in 1997, an estimated 25 per cent increase over 1996, according to a new United Nations survey.The findings of the 1997 Afghanistan Opium Poppy Survey, which were released today, indicate that although agricultural conditions are favourable in most of the country's provinces, opium is not grown in most of them. The United Nations finds that 96.4 per cent of Afghanistan's total opium production originates in provinces currently under Taliban control.
According to Pino Arlacchi, Executive Director of the United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP), the survey results "reaffirm the importance and urgency for the international community and the local authorities to take coordinated action at the source to deal with this very grave problem".
The UNDCP found that this year, some 58,400 hectares of Afghanistan are under opium cultivation -- a marginal increase of about 2.8 per cent over 1996. The significant increase in production is, in all likelihood, due to a higher yield per hectare resulting from favourable weather conditions and improved methods of cultivation.
Assuming an average farmgate price of about $40 per kilogramme, the impact on the per capita income of the people living in the area of cultivation would be minimal. "Considering the immense turnover in the heroin trade in Europe and the United States", Mr. Arlacchi commented, "you get an idea of the enormous size of the problem we have to deal with".
The new UNDCP estimate puts dry opium production in Afghanistan above the combined estimated production in the so-called "Golden Triangle" (Lao People's Democratic Republic, Myanmar and Thailand).
Within Afghanistan, the most significant changes in the size of the area under opium cultivation took place in Helmand and Qandahar, where the growing area expanded by 4,491 and 1,361 hectares respectively. This put Helmland, the country's largest opium-producing province -- which had experienced a fall-off in 1996 -- back to the level prevailing there in 1994 and 1995 (about 10 per cent of the total area).
- 2 - Press Release SOC/NAR/767 11 September 1997
The UNDCP survey was carried out in 18 provinces, eight more than were included in 1996. Reports of poppy cultivation in Baghlan, Herat and Jawzjan were verified and measured by the United Nations team. In Kunduz, Paktia, Paktitka, Sari Pul and Takhar, however, significant amounts of cannabis were discovered, while the cultivation of poppy was not confirmed.
Few countries today are faced with a more daunting array of problems than Afghanistan. It is poverty-stricken, its infrastructure is in ruins and it has experienced 19 years of war. It also faces a halving of legitimate agricultural production, a per capita income below $100 per year and the additional pressure of returning refugees.
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