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KABUL — Despite increased efforts to destroy fields of opium poppies and to wean Afghan farmers off the country’s biggest cash crop, poppy cultivation in Afghanistan rose in 2011 and has spread to areas once declared “poppy free,” according to a U.N. survey released Tuesday.
The U.N. drug-control agency said insecurity and soaring opium prices in Afghanistan were the driving factors in a 7 percent increase in the amount of land sown with poppies. It was the second consecutive year of rising poppy cultivation.
