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Afghan opium output soars as cultivation hits record high
[AlAhram] Afghan opium producers have had a bumper year with output soaring 87 percent as the area under poppy cultivation hit a record high, the latest annual survey said Wednesday.

Agricultural advances, including the use of solar-powered irrigation systems, fertilizers and pesticides, may have made opium production viable in desert areas and helped to lift the average yield by 15 percent.
The price of opium -- the lifeblood of the Taliban
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
 -- as it left farms in war-torn Afghanistan this year soared by 55 percent to almost $1.4 billion, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said, helping to fuel the bloody insurgency.
Posted by: trailing wife 2017-11-16
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=501774