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Opium

UN Photo / Zalmai

Opium production surges by 43% in Afghanistan

Opium production in Afghanistan has increased by 43% according to a survey released on Monday by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

4800 metric tons of opium has been produced in the past year, compared to 3300 metric tons during the previous year.

The highly-addictive drug heroin is obtained from the ‘opium poppy’, a flowering plant cultivated extensively in Afghanistan, where an illicit opium economy operates.

According to the UNODC, the sudden increase is largely driven by a higher opium yield per hectare.

UN Photo/UNODC/Zalmai

Afghan opium crop decreases nearly 20 per cent in 2015

Cultivation of opium poppies, the plant used to manufacture heroin, has dropped by 19 per cent year-on-year, according to a UN survey released on Wednesday.

Afghanistan has provided the majority of the world’s opium production since the early 1990s, and last year it rose to a record level, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said.

But after six years on the rise, the agency figures released for 2015 show a sharp fall.

Afghan opium production falls by 21 per cent in 2005 – UNODC

Government success at persuading farmers to voluntarily refrain from poppy cultivation, farmers’ apprehension that the official ban on opium cultivation could be enforced by eradication, and relatively low farm-gate prices have led to a 21 per cent decline in Afghan opium cultivation, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said today.