By KATHY GANNON and MOHAMMAD SHOAIB AMIN Associated Press April 3, 2022, 4:17 p.m. • 3 minutes reading Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Email this article KABUL, Afghanistan – Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban announced a ban on poppy harvest on Sunday, even as farmers in some parts of the country began exporting opium from the plant needed to produce heroin. The Taliban have warned farmers that their crops will burn and they could be jailed if they proceed with the harvest. Harvesting and planting seasons vary in Afghanistan. In the heart of the southern Kandahar Taliban, the harvest has begun, but in the east of the country some farmers are just starting to plant their crops. In desperately poor Afghanistan, the ban is likely to further impoverish its poorest citizens at a time when the country is in a free economic downturn. The decree was announced by Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid at a news conference in the capital, Kabul. The decree also banned the manufacture of drugs and the transportation, trade, export and import of heroin, hashish and alcohol. The ban is reminiscent of the Taliban’s previous rule in the late 1990s, when a movement embracing a harsh interpretation of Islam banned poppy production. At that time, the ban was implemented throughout the country within two years and according to the UN helped greatly in the elimination of poppy production. However, after the ousting of the Taliban in 2001, farmers in many parts of the country returned to poppy production. Poppies are the main source of income for millions of small farmers and day laborers who can earn over $ 300 a month by harvesting and mining opium. Today, Afghanistan is the largest producer of opium in the world, despite the billions of dollars spent by the international community during its 20 years in Afghanistan to eradicate drugs. In 2021, before the takeover of the Taliban, Afghanistan produced more than 6,000 tonnes of opium, which the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said could possibly produce 320 tonnes of pure heroin. Afghanistan produces more opium than any other opium-producing country, and last year was the sixth consecutive year of opium harvest. During the long-running Taliban insurgency, the movement reportedly made millions of dollars by taxing farmers and middle-aged men to smuggle their drugs out of Afghanistan. Senior US government-backed government officials are also said to have made millions from the booming drug trade. Washington has spent more than $ 8 billion trying to eliminate poppy production in Afghanistan during its nearly 20-year war, which ended with the Taliban occupying the country in August. Almost 80% of the heroin produced by Afghan opium reaches Europe via Central Asia and Pakistan. According to a UN report in 2021, opiate revenues in Afghanistan were between $ 1.8 billion and $ 2.7 billion, more than 7% of the country’s GDP. The same report said that “illegal drug supply chains outside Afghanistan” are doing much more. The Taliban ban comes as the country faces a humanitarian crisis that prompted the UN to ask for $ 4.4 billion last month, as 95% of Afghans do not have enough to eat. The ban, while severely damaging drug homes, is likely to wreak havoc on small opium-dependent farmers to survive. It is difficult to know how the Taliban will be able to generate surrogate crops and funding for farmers at a time when international development money has stalled. Afghanistan’s poorest often use the promise of next year’s poppy harvest to buy basic items such as flour, sugar, cooking oil and heating oil. When the Taliban last ruled, they hired village elders and mosque clerics to enforce the ban. In villages that ignored the ban, the Taliban arrested elders, clerics and offending farmers. ——— Gannon reported from Islamabad
