Since returning to power in 2021, the Afghan Taliban say they refuse to compromise their values in the name of an unwavering faith in Islam. The success of the fight against the cultivation of poppies used to manufacture heroin, of which the country was the world’s leading producer, would be the symbol of this doctrinal purity. Reality diverges a bit.
After the “strict ban” of its production, in April 2022, the poppy harvest, which had fallen drastically in 2023, increased by 19% in 2024, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). According to the United Nations (UN), the Islamist leaders let this happen so as not to lose the support of a part of the rural population dissatisfied with having lost a large part of their income.
The decree of Emir Haibatullah Akhundzada, supreme leader of the Taliban, banning poppy cultivation, caused the harvest to fall by 95% in the country in 2023. By the end of 2024, the UNODC notes, “12,800 hectares” Opium poppy was grown in Afghanistan, almost 20% more than in 2023. The southwestern provinces, for a long time the epicenter of this crop, were supplanted, in 2024, by those of the northeast, which now concentrates 59% of the total production, particularly the province of Badakhshan. But the Taliban’s historic stronghold, Helmand province in the south, saw a 434% increase.
Clashes between farmers and police
The extent of poppy fields in the country is still far from reaching the 232,000 hectares recorded in 2022, but this trend marks a sudden stop. The Taliban did not want to distance themselves from the regions that were demonstrating against the eradication policy carried out by their police officers. In May, in Badakhshan, clashes between refractory farmers and members of anti-narcotics brigades who came to destroy poppy fields left several dead. “For us, says a UN agent contacted in KabulIt is less a question of the Taliban’s desire to buy social peace than of their fear of harming their most loyal and oldest supporters, the Pashtun farmers. »
The significant loss of income, in the absence of alternative solutions, has forced farmers to reduce their spending on food and health, accentuating malnutrition and exposure to greater health risks. Short-term decisions were made to the detriment of long-term environmental concerns. Cotton, preferred over less profitable food crops, has depleted groundwater reserves. However, water scarcity is hitting this country hard, hit by three consecutive years of drought and an accelerated decline in water tables.
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