Afghan opium cultivation dropping, according to preliminary UN survey

Farmers in Afghanistan, which accounts for 87 per cent of the world's opium and heroin products, are growing fewer opium poppies this year than last and overall output is expected to drop for the first time since 2001, according to the latest United Nations survey released ahead of a detailed annual report in the autumn.

Introducing the study at a UN news conference yesterday in Kabul, the capital, Afghan Minister of Counter Narcotics Habibullah Qaderi noted that the Rapid Assessment Survey carried out jointly last month by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and his ministry gives trends of cultivation rather than figures.

"But the main finding of this survey is a falling trend in opium poppy cultivation in the majority of Afghanistan's 34 provinces," he said. "This is notably in the main poppy growing provinces of recent years, such as Nangarhar, Helmand and Uruzgan provinces. However, in five provinces, there has been an increase in poppy cultivation, such as Kandahar and Farah provinces."

The Survey was carried out by local field surveyors in more than 200 villages in over half of the country's districts. Work will start in April for the detailed annual UNODC Opium Survey of 2005, which will be conducted countrywide through August and published in the autumn.