Afghanistan opium poppy cultivation surges despite Taliban govt ban: UN

Opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan more than quadrupled in 2026 despite a Taliban government ban, the United Nations said on Thursday, urging that impoverished farmers needed alternatives to the lucrative crop. Cultivated areas reached 43,000 hectares (around 106,200 acres), up from 10,000 hectares in 2025, while estimated opium production jumped fivefold from 300 tonnes to 1,500 tonnes, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in a report. Long the world’s leading producer of poppies, Afghanistan was overtaken by Myanmar after a 2022 Taliban government ban crushed the trade in the country. But rampant poverty has driven some farmers to return to the trade. “Without opium, we cannot even afford basic food,” Mohammad, a 22-year-old farmer in Afghanistan’s northeast, told AFP.

This photograph taken on June 22, 2026 shows Afghan farmers harvesting sap from poppies in a field in Badakhshan province. — AFP Afghanistan’s 2022 crackdown drove cultivated areas down from more than 200,000 hectares to 10,000 hectares in 2025. Myanmar cultivated 53,000 hectares in 2025, with no 2026 figures available. The Taliban authorities claim to have destroyed more than 22,000 hectares. But UNODC said many poppy plots were concealed among cereal crops or behind walls, making them difficult to detect. Mohammad lives with his parents in Badakhshan, which has become Afghanistan’s main opium poppy-growing province. “The Taliban threaten us and do not allow us to grow opium. We cultivate it with a great deal of fear,” he said, asking only to be identified by his first name. “I want to buy a car, build a house and get married. Without opium, I cannot achieve these things,” he further explained. ‘The only way’ In May, two people were killed in clashes that erupted as Afghan…