Kabul, Afghanistan – Afghanistan’s heroin-producing poppy crop set another record this season, despite intensified eradication efforts, the U.S. ambassador said Tuesday.
Ambassador William Wood said preliminary data show that Afghan farmers harvested 457,135 acres of opium poppies this year, compared with 407,715 acres last year. The growing industry fuels the Taliban, crime, addiction and government corruption.
Government-led eradication efforts destroyed about 49,420 acres of poppies this year, a “disappointing” outcome, Wood told reporters.
Wood said he strongly supports forced eradication, alluding to U.S.-led poppy-spraying in Colombia. But he said there is “not yet an international consensus” on the practice.
Drug cultivation “threatens security and governance and stability in Afghanistan” and kills Afghans and others, he said.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai last year rejected U.S. offers to spray this year’s illicit crop, after Afghans said the herbicide could affect livestock, crops and water – fears the U.S. calls unfounded.
Afghanistan last year accounted for 92 percent of global opium production, up from 70 percent in 2000 and 52 percent a decade earlier. With the higher yields, global opium production increased 43 percent between 2005 and 2006.
