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| Afghanistan | |
| Hard times for Afghan opium farmers as price falls, risks rise | |
| 2009-09-04 | |
| (Reuters) - Growing opium is hardly worth the risk any more for Dost Mohammad, a farmer in Helmand, a province of Afghanistan which by itself produces almost enough opium to satisfy all the heroin addicts on earth. "Opium farmers benefit nothing from the crops and spend their day and night in misery," he told Reuters. "We spend six months in the field working hard, then the government can destroy it in a single day." According to the United Nations, prices for opium have plummeted in Afghanistan, causing farmers to switch to other crops. Two years ago, a farmer growing opium could earn 10 times as much as a farmer growing wheat on the same piece of land. Today, it is only worth three times as much. For many, that means producing the drugs is no longer worth the risk or effort. According to the U.N.'s annual report into Afghanistan's drug harvest, 800,000 Afghans abandoned the trade this year. Opium, which accounted for 27 percent of Afghanistan's economy in 2002, now accounts for just 4 percent.
Adam Khan, a smuggler who trades opium in several districts in Helmand, said the low price and the government's eradication operations in districts and villages previously controlled by the Taliban have badly affected the trade. "I used to sell five kilos (11 pounds) for 40,000 Pakistani rupees ($480). Now it is not more than 15,000 to 16,000," he said. Farmers who have their own small plots to work on have been branching out into planting other crops, but big landlords connected to dealers are still hiring labourers to plant opium, farmers say. The United Nations believes traders are hoarding stockpiles, perhaps as much as 10,000 tonnes, or double the annual illicit demand for the drug. | |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #2 I'm ashamed. Usually I don't miss the really obvious stuff. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2009-09-04 15:03 |
| #1 "One seventh of what it used to be? That's an awful lot of former jihadis now on the dole." The numerator, the amoung of opium produded, hasnt gone down that much. The denominator, the rest of the Afghan economy, has grown. In 2002 there wasnt much of an afghan economy at all. In 2009, despite all the hand wringing, the nonopium piece of the afghan economy has grown a lot IIUC, esp in the north and west. |
| Posted by: liberal hawk 2009-09-04 10:18 |