Poppy cultivation in Afghanistan will go down only slightly this year despite intense coalition and Afghan efforts to reduce a crop that funds Taliban operations.The Afghan government eradicates poppy fields in addition to trying to persuade farmers to grow other crops. But the United States and its coalition partners do not, having concluded that eradication alone hurt mostly poor farmers and alienates the population. Agriculture accounts for about 35% of Afghanistan's economy.
Instead, the coalition has backed efforts to bolster Afghanistan's roads, storage facilities and irrigation so that legal crops, such as wheat, are viable. By contrast, poppy is an easy crop to grow, store and sell and requires little water or herbicides.