<p>Opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan reached a record high in 2014, a United Nations report revealed today, highlighting the failure of the multi-billion-dollar US-led campaign to crack down on the lucrative crop.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The total area under cultivation was about 553,500 acres in 2014, a seven per cent increase on last year, according to the Afghanistan Opium Survey released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).<br /><br />Just 74,000 hectares was being used to grow poppies in 2002, a year after the Taliban regime was toppled.<br /><br />Despite a decade of costly US and international counter-narcotics programmes, poppy farming has boomed in the south and west regions, which include the most volatile parts of the country where the Taliban insurgency is strongest.<br /><br />With US-led NATO troops withdrawing from Afghanistan, fears are rising that worsening instability could trigger further growth in opium cultivation as Afghan security forces struggle to push back the resurgent Taliban.<br /><br />"The country is having to stand on its own feet (and)... will have to deal with this criminalisation of its economics and politics as a matter of priority," Jean-Luc Lemahieu, director of policy analysis at UNODC, said.<br /><br />Poppy farmers are often taxed by the Taliban, who use the cash to help fund their insurgency against government and NATO forces.<br /><br />Despite the presence of tens of thousands of foreign troops since a US-led invasion ousted the Taliban, Afghanistan grows about 80 per cent of the world's opium, which is used to produce highly addictive heroin.<br /><br />The survey said that potential opium production was estimated at 6,400 tons in 2014, a rapid increase of 17 per cent from 2013, but not as high as the record 7,400 tons produced in 2007.<br /><br />"In 2014, opium prices decreased in all regions of Afghanistan. One probable reason for the decrease was an increase in supply due to an increase in production," the survey said.<br /><br />It said that the "farm-gate" value of opium in Afghanistan was about USD 0.85 billion -- four per cent of the country's GDP.<br /><br />Just 2,692 hectares of poppy fields were eradicated in 2014 -- a 63 per cent drop from the previous year.<br /><br />"Most of the areas in which we were fighting cultivation was under enemy control. This affected our plans very badly," Mubariz Rashidi, acting minister of counter narcotics, told reporters.<br /><br />"The security forces that should have destroyed the poppy fields were busy providing security for the presidential elections.<br /><br />"With opium, Afghanistan cannot go towards progress, prosperity and development," he added.<br /><br />Earlier this year the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko warned that the country could turn into "a narco-criminal state" after the bulk of the NATO-led force withdraws.</p>
<p>Opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan reached a record high in 2014, a United Nations report revealed today, highlighting the failure of the multi-billion-dollar US-led campaign to crack down on the lucrative crop.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The total area under cultivation was about 553,500 acres in 2014, a seven per cent increase on last year, according to the Afghanistan Opium Survey released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).<br /><br />Just 74,000 hectares was being used to grow poppies in 2002, a year after the Taliban regime was toppled.<br /><br />Despite a decade of costly US and international counter-narcotics programmes, poppy farming has boomed in the south and west regions, which include the most volatile parts of the country where the Taliban insurgency is strongest.<br /><br />With US-led NATO troops withdrawing from Afghanistan, fears are rising that worsening instability could trigger further growth in opium cultivation as Afghan security forces struggle to push back the resurgent Taliban.<br /><br />"The country is having to stand on its own feet (and)... will have to deal with this criminalisation of its economics and politics as a matter of priority," Jean-Luc Lemahieu, director of policy analysis at UNODC, said.<br /><br />Poppy farmers are often taxed by the Taliban, who use the cash to help fund their insurgency against government and NATO forces.<br /><br />Despite the presence of tens of thousands of foreign troops since a US-led invasion ousted the Taliban, Afghanistan grows about 80 per cent of the world's opium, which is used to produce highly addictive heroin.<br /><br />The survey said that potential opium production was estimated at 6,400 tons in 2014, a rapid increase of 17 per cent from 2013, but not as high as the record 7,400 tons produced in 2007.<br /><br />"In 2014, opium prices decreased in all regions of Afghanistan. One probable reason for the decrease was an increase in supply due to an increase in production," the survey said.<br /><br />It said that the "farm-gate" value of opium in Afghanistan was about USD 0.85 billion -- four per cent of the country's GDP.<br /><br />Just 2,692 hectares of poppy fields were eradicated in 2014 -- a 63 per cent drop from the previous year.<br /><br />"Most of the areas in which we were fighting cultivation was under enemy control. This affected our plans very badly," Mubariz Rashidi, acting minister of counter narcotics, told reporters.<br /><br />"The security forces that should have destroyed the poppy fields were busy providing security for the presidential elections.<br /><br />"With opium, Afghanistan cannot go towards progress, prosperity and development," he added.<br /><br />Earlier this year the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko warned that the country could turn into "a narco-criminal state" after the bulk of the NATO-led force withdraws.</p>