BUMPER HARVESTS OF DEADLY OPIUM AS AFGHAN FARMERS SWITCH TO CASH CROP
Easy to grow and store, the heroin base earns farmers 100 times more than they get for wheat
In striking the drug enterprises we’re hitting the Taliban where it hurts – their finances GEN JOHN NICHOLSON Commander of Nato’s Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan
Rozi Qul, a farmer from north Afghanistan’s Kunduz province, has a lot on his mind these days. His yields from this year’s harvest have been bountiful, but Mr Qul is worried about the renewed interest in his crops from the Afghan government and Nato forces in Kabul, because they want to destroy it. Mr Qul is an opium farmer. “I have been growing opium since 2010, for almost seven years now,” he said.
“I don’t care if it’s illegal. The government doesn’t feed me, but opium production provides for my family.”
Opium is used to produce heroin, one of the most harmful and dangerous narcotics, and Mr Qul is one of thousands of farmers in Afghanistan who have switched to the crop in the past decade.
This year the country produced the highest amount of opium since 1994, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said.
While Afghanistan has been the world’s largest opium-producing nation for decades, the UN agency reported that 328,000 hectares of land was under opium production this year, 127,000 hectares more than last year.
Nine thousand tonnes of opium was produced, an 87 per cent increase on last year. The main reason for this unprecedented increase is economic.
“One sear [7 kilograms] of wheat will fetch me only 150 afghanis [Dh8],” Mr Qul said. “On the other hand, 1kg of opium can sell for 15,000 to 16,000 afghanis.”
Jelena Bjelica, a researcher at the Afghanistan Analyst Network, corroborates his experiences in her report A Low-Risk Crop in a High-Risk Environment.
“Even in easier times, opium does not always behave according to standard market rules of supply and demand,” Ms Bjelica said.
“Like other crops it can be sold to provide an income, but when dried it stores for five to seven years without losing all of its value, so it also functions as capital and savings.
“Even during wartime the market for opium still functions. Farmers who grow legal crops have to get them to market, risking their year’s income travelling through front lines and checkpoints. If they grow opium the buyers come to them. It is a lot safer.”
The start-up investment needed to grow opium is much less.
“Growing wheat in less than a hectare of land requires four to five bags of chemical fertiliser that can cost up to 1,500 to 2,000 afghanis a bag. How can I afford all that?” Mr Qul said.
“Also, this will produce 100 sear of wheat which will earn me about 10,000 afghanis. After all that investment and work I can’t even make enough to feed my family.”
Opium, on the other hand, ensures a steady and sustainable income for millions of Afghans.
“The beneficiaries range from the landless poor to the well-connected rich [and Taliban and government-related people],” Ms Bjelica said. “For the poorest, the expansion of labour-intensive opium production may feel like a godsend.”
It is no secret that opium production, processing, sale and smuggling helps to fill the Taliban’s coffers, which fuels the instability in Afghanistan.
In fact, as part of its latest strategy, US forces in Afghanistan have begun targeting what they refer to as the “Taliban drug labs” in the hope of weakening the financial pillars of the insurgents.
“In striking northern Helmand and the drug enterprises there, we’re hitting the Taliban where it hurts, which is their finances,” Gen John Nicholson, commander of Nato’s Resolute Support mission and US forces in Afghanistan, said recently.
“The Taliban are interested in making money and, to some extent, it’s fair to say that this movement has evolved into a narco-insurgency. It’s an illegal economy that, in terms of street value, is something close to US$60 billion [Dh220.39bn], as estimated by our law enforcement agencies.”
Gen Nicholson said that at least $200 million from the opium industry goes into the Taliban’s bank accounts, funding the conflict. But he gave assurances that his forces were not going after the opium farmers.
Which leaves government forces – and they do not worry Mr Qul at all.
“Government officials can only wield power in about a 100-metre circumference of their district office.
“They have no control of rural areas,” he said.
He said the Taliban were not the only buyers of his produce, although he would not say who his other customers were.
“Taliban doesn’t force us but yes, they do encourage us to cultivate opium,” Mr Qul said. “Of course, they buy from us and other people buy it too, because it is a free market and anyone is allowed to buy.”