Afghan Poppy Cultivation Jumps Despite Taliban Crackdown
Armed guards watch as the Taliban's anti-narcotics police destroy poppy fields outside of Mazar-e-Sharif, Balkh Province, Afghanistan on May 1.
The Taliban banned poppy cultivation in April 2022. But last year's harvest was largely exempted from the ban, resulting in a 32 percent jump in opium production.
Experts say the cash-strapped Taliban government has been unwilling to enforce its ban because the illicit opium trade remains a major source of revenue. Income from opium production, estimated at between $1.8 billion and $2.7 billion, made up 12-14 percent of Afghanistan's gross domestic product in 2021.
The Taliban has been under pressure from neighboring countries and the international community to combat the production and trafficking of drugs since the hard-line group seized power following the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO-led foreign troops from Afghanistan in August 2021.
The Taliban was largely successful in eradicating poppy agriculture at the tail end of its first stint in power from 1996 to 2001, analysts say. But their ban faded when they were ousted by a U.S.-led invasion in 2001 -- and they later started funding their ensuing insurgency by taxing poppy farmers.
In April 2022, Taliban Supreme Leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada imposed a strict ban on the cultivation, use, and trafficking of all illicit drugs.
“If anyone violates the decree, the crop will be destroyed immediately and the violator will be treated according to Shari'a law,” says the order announced by the Taliban's Interior Ministry at a news conference in Kabul.
Some Afghan farmers say they are willing to stop cultivating opium if the authorities can provide them with alternative livelihoods and crops. But they say that the Taliban has offered few economic incentives to farmers, who can earn much more by growing opium compared to other crops, such as wheat.
“I support the ban on poppy cultivation if we get some aid to enable us to buy food and medicines for our families,” Abdul Qayyum, a farmer in Kandahar’s Maiwand district, told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi late last year.
As both an insurgency movement and a governing power, the Taliban has earned a reputation for fiercely enforcing law and order, including public corporal punishments and even executions during its first period in power.
Isolated and under economic sanctions, the Taliban says it needs foreign assistance to rid the country of its illicit drug economy.
The United Nations Development Program has reported that impoverished Afghans are already taking extreme measures to survive under Taliban rule.
“Some have been compelled to sell their homes, land, or assets that generate income; others have resorted to the distressing practice of commodifying their own family members, turning children into laborers and young daughters into brides,” the report states.