Afghanistan: Continued Militancy, Poverty Push Afghan Farmers to Grow Poppy

Apr 9, 2017 | Abdul Haleem and Abdul Aziz Safdari, XInhua
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A former stronghold of Taliban and the hotbed of the armed militants currently, the troubled Helmand province been the scene of fierce fighting between government forces and armed insurgents over the past few years. A survey conducted by Afghan Ministry for Counter-Narcotics and the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime and released in October revealed 43 percent increase in the opium products in 2016 against the poppy produced in 2015. According to the survey, Afghanistan had produced 4,800 tons of opium poppy in 2016 while the illegal crop harvested in 2015 amounted to 3,300 tons.