The opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has dropped by an estimated 95 percent since the country’s caretaker government imposed a drug ban in April 2022, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said Sunday.
According to the organization’s report, the opium cultivation of the once world’s biggest opium producer fell from 233,000 hectares to just 10,800 hectares in 2023, leading to a 95-percent drop in the supply of opium, from 6,200 tonnes in 2022 to 333 tonnes in 2023.
The farmer’s income from selling the opium harvest has resultantly decreased by more than 1 billion U.S. dollars, according to the report.
Many farmers turned to cultivating wheat instead, with an overall increase of 160,000 hectares in cereal cultivation across the Farah, Helmand, Kandahar, and Nangarhar provinces, the report noted.
