The UNODC said that opium poppy cultivation climbed by 32% in Afghanistan from the previous year to 233,000 hectares, making the 2022 harvest the third-largest cultivated area since monitoring began.
Afghan farmers are "trapped" in the illegal opiate industry, while seizure events around Afghanistan imply that opiate trafficking remains in place, said Ghada Waly, executive director of UNODC.
Nevertheless, opium poppy growing occupied one-fifth of the province of Helmand
...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan...
’s arable land in southern Afghanistan, according to the UNODC report.
Following the announcement of the poppy cultivation ban in April, the report says that opium prices have skyrocketed. Sales of opium increased Afghan farmers’ income from $425 million in 2021 to $1.4 billion in 2022, a more than threefold, jaw-dropping increase.
This comes as the Taliban
...Arabic for students...
authorities outlawed the cultivation and narcotics including opium poppy in April 2022.