Dealing with the Afghan opium trade

It was during the Soviet invasion of the 1970s and 80s that the Afghan government started losing control of its provinces. Under a weakened regime, warlords flourished and with it opium production began increasing rapidly as the tyrants looked for ways to fund their military existence.

One must doubt that they expected the Afghanistan opium trade to, at one stage, provide well over 90 percent of the world's opium.

When Soviet and Western forces withdrew all together from Afghanistan at the end of the 1980s a power vacuum was created, within which many Mujaheddin factions started fighting. With no more support from the US or Soviet Union poppy cultivation exploded, with opium crops eventually reaching 4,500 metric tons by 1999.

However at the turn of the millennium under the rule of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, poppy cultivation was declared un-Islamic and one of the world's most successful anti-drug campaigns was launched.

Implemented in 2000-2001, the Taliban's drug eradication program led to a 94 percent decline in poppy cultivation. In 2001, according to UN figures, opium production had fallen to 185 tons.

Opium funding the Taliban

Immediately following the October 2001 US-led invasion however, production increased dramatically and quickly regained its historical levels.

The US invaded on the grounds that Afghanistan was a hot bed for producing terrorists that posed an international threat and aimed to topple, what Washington believed to be, a tyrannical Taliban government. Since arriving in Afghanistan breaking up the poppy trade, which helps fund the Taliban, has become absolutely vital for the US.

To call it a "business" would be misguided due to the amount of suffering created as a result of its existence, but the economic benefit to the Taliban is unquestionable. Over the last four years the Taliban has made an estimated US$450-600 million from taxing opium cultivation and trade in the country.

But US forces have started making a difference in Afghanistan and a report last year found that opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan was down 22 percent, opium production had been cut by 10 per cent, while prices were at a 10-year low. The number of opium poppy-free provinces has also increased from 18 to 20 out of a total number of 34, and more drugs are being seized as a result of more robust counter-narcotics operations by Afghan and NATO forces.

A trade in decline

Poppy cultivation was once one of the biggest employers of Afghan people with 9.8 percent of the population involved in opium production in 2008. This fell to 6.4 percent last year.

The trade is most certainly in decline, and Coalition forces' efforts to discourage poppy farming looks to have some economic factors on its side and the reasons for the decline are thought to be two-fold.

David Mansfield, a top expert on Afghan drugs policy and fellow at the Harvard University's Carr Center, claims that lower poppy prices are, due to previous overproduction in Helmand and uncertainty about the supply of wheat from war-torn Pakistan is, one reason for its fall in popularity. He also calculates that the poppy, with its high labor costs and falling prices, is becoming less profitable than wheat.

He believes in time people could make a permanent switch to wheat, but there are plenty of people who doubt this is the case. Farmers in opium growing villages such as Khan Neshin still believe they can make two to three times more money from growing opium instead of wheat.

What's more, the departure of the smugglers, farm hands, and processors tied to the trade has damaged activity in the bazaar, and the less labor-intensive wheat has left people idling without work, reports the New York Times.

Coalition forces are benefiting from external factors that have made poppy farming less popular but in the meantime are working to build up other parts of the economy. But the fact remains that with less opium production more people are without work.

Moving forward

This must be viewed as a transitional problem that is entirely necessary as Afghans move away from the drug-crop, but in the mean time Coalition forces must work together to help people cope with the change.

As reported by the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) US marines and US and British aid agencies are providing money to the local government for make-work projects like building footbridges and walls and clearing irrigation ditches, as well as giving away wheat seeds.

However the need for further diversification away from wheat must also be recognised. Coalition policy must include increasing the share of land devoted to other crops and that means opening up new markets.

This has led to the establishment of "food zones" in places like Helmand where intensive efforts have been made to shift farmers on to new crops, and in these regions poppy production has slumped significantly.

As UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa puts it, "controlling drugs in Afghanistan will not solve all of the country's problems, but the country's problems cannot be solved without controlling drugs."

But in order for Afghanistan to even consider the prospect of a stable economic infrastructure, security must improve - and this presents a whole new problem all together.

Related Articles:

Iraq and Libya strike it rich | Is Palestine ready for independence? | Iraq sign overseas mega-deal

Like this article? Get the RSS feed: