Afghanistan: In Hard Times, Afghan Farmers Are Turning to Opium for Security

Nov 21, 2021 | Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Taimoor Shah, New York Times
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The decision to destroy his entire orchard is one Abdul Hamid and many other Afghan farmers in the district are making to earn an income after a series of devastating harvest seasons. A crippling drought, financial hardships and unpredictable border closures at the war’s end have sent them scrambling for the security of the region’s most reliable economic engine: growing opium poppy.