Opium production in Afghanistan has risen fivefold in a year, according to a United Nations survey released on Thursday, 29 October. It is the first significant increase since the Taliban banned poppy cultivation in 2022.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) found that the area planted with opium poppy grew by 330 per cent, to more than 43,000 hectares, up from about 10,000 hectares in 2025. Estimated production rose by 400 per cent, from about 300 tonnes to just under 1,500 tonnes. Both figures remain well below the levels seen before the ban, when some 232,000 hectares were under cultivation. Before the ban, Afghanistan accounted for around 80 per cent of global illicit opium supply.

Farmers adapt to enforcement

The de facto authorities say they eradicated 22,000 hectares of poppy this year. UNODC, however, said many growers appear to have adapted to evade enforcement, hiding small plots within cereal fields or inside walled compounds, and planting and harvesting at staggered intervals to avoid detection.

UNODC Executive Director Monica Juma said the increase showed “the difficulty in sustaining decreases in illicit opium cultivation when poor farmers have no alternatives to feed their families.” She urged the authorities and the international community to work together on livelihoods, farm infrastructure and access to markets for farming communities.

Shift to the northeast

Cultivation spread to 16 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, five more than last year. Three in every four hectares were in the northeast, now firmly the country’s main growing area, whereas most poppy was grown in the southwest before the ban. Prices dipped from $570 a kilogramme last year to $500, but remain far above pre-ban levels of under $100, UNODC said.

With demand holding up and prices high, shrinking supplies could push cultivation higher still, and UNODC said continued monitoring would show whether this year’s jump is temporary or the start of a resurgence.

Sources: UN News; Daily Times of Bangladesh.