Who Promotes Afghan Farmers' Opium Cultivation and Production? Kawther Salam: According to UNODC’s Afghan Opium Survey 2017, the disappointing reversal of last year has become a profoundly alarming trend in the cultivation and production of opium in the country. The Survey’s findings show the total area under poppy cultivation has jumped a dizzying 63 per cent or 127,000 hectares compared to 2016. In 2017, the total area of cultivation is 328,000 hectares.
For both Afghanistan, and the world, we are heading towards uncharted territory with a new record high obliterating the previous one in 2014. Perhaps even more disturbing, potential opium production is estimated at 9,000 tons; an 87 per cent increase from the 2016 level of 4,800 tons.
The following discussion took place today Wednesday 15 November 2017 at 12:00 noon at a press conference on Afghanistan Opium Survey, held at Vienna International Centre, on room C0735, Building C, 7th Floor with Angela Me, Chief of the Research and Trend Analysis Branch, and the UN office on drugs and crime (UNODC).
Kawther Salam: According to UNODC’s Afghan Opium Survey 2017, the disappointing reversal of last year has become a profoundly alarming trend in the cultivation and production of opium in the country. The Survey’s findings show the total area under poppy cultivation has jumped a dizzying 63 per cent or 127,000 hectares compared to 2016. In 2017, the total area of cultivation is 328,000 hectares.
