http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080206/wl_sthasia_afp/afghanistandrugsun_08020 6080622;_ylt=AprmjXshB0fbT.oGHhettSPOVooA Afghan opium output may drop slightly in 2008: UN by Bronwen RobertsWed Feb 6, 3:06 AM ET Afghanistan's vast and lucrative opium production may drop slightly this year from a record spike, but world-high cannabis output is likely to rise, a United Nations survey released Wednesday said. Opium from Afghanistan, which makes up more than 90 percent of world supply, will likely earn Taliban insurgents tens of millions of dollars over the year, UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) chief Antonio Maria Costa said. It will continue to be grown at an "alarming rate" in the insurgency-hit south and southwest, perhaps greater than last year when it accounted for 78 percent of total opium cultivation in Afghanistan, said the survey. But decreases were expected in the north and centre, areas that see less of an insurgency by the Taliban, who were in government until 2001, and where the government has more authority. "Afghanistan is becoming a divided country, with clear drugs and insurgency battle lines," Costa said in a statement. A 10 percent "tax" paid by most farmers in the south would generate close to 100 million dollars for insurgents this year and extra money would reach the militants by running heroin labs and through drug exports, Costa said. Sometimes this tax goes to mullahs and corrupt local security commanders. The survey found that overall around 192,000 hectares (474,000 acres) of opium, used to make heroin, has been planted in Afghanistan -- most of it in the south. This was a decrease of about 1,000 hectares from last year, a record high for Afghanistan. Final output would depend on the success of government eradication drives and agricultural yields, said a statement released with the survey. Output was 8,200 tons last year, up 34 percent on 2006. "Opium cultivation in Afghanistan may have peaked, but the 2008 amount will still be shockingly high," Costa said. The sharpest increase in opium production, which is harvested from around April, was expected in the arid southwestern province of Nimroz, which borders Iran and Pakistan and is a major trafficking area. "They are turning Nimroz into a blooming desert," said Christina Oguz, the UNODC's representative in Afghanistan in a separate statement. Drugs traffickers were often able to give farmers more support than the government, she said. "They provide easy advance credit against future opium harvests. They provide seeds and fertilisers. They bore wells so that poppy can be cultivated in arid areas." Oguz said strong government leadership in counter-narcotics efforts was the key to cutting back the trade, valued at about four billion dollars a year -- equal to more than half of the legal gross domestic product. The latest UN survey also found that of 469 villages polled, 18 percent reported growing cannabis, compared with 13 percent last year, and output was likely to grow on last year's 70,000 hectares. In "addition to supplying 90 percent of world opium, Afghanistan has become the world's biggest supplier of cannabis," Costa said. The country's internationally backed efforts to cut back opium -- which feeds heroin into Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia -- include persuading farmers to grow other crops, and eradication of opium poppy fields. The Afghan counter-narcotics ministry is aiming to eradicate around 50,000 hectares this year, more than double last year's figure, policy general director Mohammad Zarfar told AFP. "We have already done a pre-planting information campaign, maybe that will work," he said. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? 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