According to the recent calculations and estimates Afghanistan produces about 90% of world poppy cultivation. Officials have been saying, the massive income from heroin finances Taliban insurgency that has been rising in the last couple of years. According to UN statistics, illicit drug production has been increased since the ouster of Taliban in 2001 under the US-led coalition operation. In 2001 the lowest opium production was recorded in Afghanistan since 1994—when Taliban had controlled almost the entire country except some of the northern provinces. And yet after eight years of international campaign against drugs, Afghanistan still remains the largest producer.
Financing Taliban Insurgency: It is believed today Taliban receives over 63% of its financial assistance from the $4 billion opium industry, 53% of the GDP of Afghanistan. NATO forces have been trying to eradicate the financial supply line of Taliban, the drug trade. Officials calculate that Taliban earned $140 million from opium in 2007.
Insurgents are involved in different ways, through direct cultivation to safeguarding and transportation of the production. According to officials, about 20 times more area has been brought under cultivation during the last eight years. In 2001, it was 7,606 hectares while last year cultivation was recorded at 157,000 hectares.
Most poppy crops are cultivated in five southern insurgency-hit provinces where Taliban have been challenging the writ of the Afghan Government making a strong comeback after they were ousted by the US-led forces. Over 50% of the total production is just cultivated in Helmand province, the heartland of Taliban militancy stronghold.
Afghanistan’s opium production can be controlled. But there has not been significant improvement. There are more than 50 drug processing labs in that province. There was an increase record of 160% in poppy production in Helmand in 2007.
“US Anti-Drug Policy Ineffective”: International community is worried about the intensifying poppy production in Afghanistan, despite billions of dollars has been spent on efforts to eradicate the illicit drugs from the war-torn country. The US Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Mr. Richard Holbrooke had admitted the US anti-drug policy has been ineffective. The US anti-drug campaign has been “the most wasteful and ineffective program”, said Mr. Holbrooke while talking to media in the Brussels Forum in Belgium. The US spends annual $800 million on counter-narcotics program in Afghanistan. Mr. Holbrooke said the US “has nothing out of the counter-narcotics program.”
Different Approaches: There have been different approaches in counter narcotics in Afghanistan during the last eight years. And thus, NATO had allowed its forces to target “insurgency related poppy networks”. Prior to this, the forces did not directly involve against the drug networks. The US wanted to spray herbicides on the vast poppy farmlands, but the Afghan government has been opposing the idea. Last year, there was a US plan of spraying herbicides on heroin and poppy fields which were disallowed by administration saying, it would harm the fields and would drive poor farmers into Taliban insurgency. The Afghan Ministry of Counter-Narcotics has been launching livelihood programs for poor farmers in the southern provinces to encourage them grow other crops and give up poppy cultivation. Poverty is a major reason behind the production of poppy, which can bring a farmer ten times more earning than wheat crop. The 90% of the world heroin that’s produced in Afghanistan are being smuggled to other parts of the world through neighboring countries. Mostly illicit drugs of Afghanistan are being smuggled to and through neighboring countries of Iran and Pakistan.
On this regard, Triangular Joint Anti-Narcotics Operation was conducted by the anti-drugs police of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran on the joint borders. This was the first joint counter-narcotics initiative by the neighboring countries to control drug smuggling on their borders. The joint operation was the initial action plan of the gradual task to reduce drug smuggling. The respective countries have declared the focal points to implement the joint operations against drug trafficking. A Joint Planning Cell has already been set up in Tehran in February of last year.
New Strategy: The US envoy Richard Holbrooke talking to media after the G-8 Conference in July 2009 said, the new US Administration under President Obama would change drug efforts from poppy eradication to ban on drug shipments and supplies. He admitted that the anti-drug efforts in Afghanistan have resulted in failure.
Under the new strategy, the US will not support poppy eradication, but its movement and interception of chemicals and drug transportation while going after drug lords. Though Afghan government had welcomed the new strategy, but British officials said, they would continue eradication efforts. It shows a split which is concerning since British forces have been controlling the highest-poppy producing province Helmand. Despite the massive efforts by the international community and allied forces in Afghanistan, yet there has not been any significant achievement in eliminating drug production and its financial flow to Taliban insurgency. The abovementioned problems are causing a less effective outcome of the massive international efforts. A need of review on poppy eradication policy is must.