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Kabul - Afghanistan has reduced the
production and cultivation of opium for the
first time since the Taliban regime fell in
2001, the United Nations counter-narcotics
chief said on Monday.
The area under cultivation for opium dropped
21% over the past year, while the opium
harvest fell by 2.4%, Antonio Maria Costa,
head of the UN office for drugs and crime,
told AFP.
However Afghanistan remains the world's
biggest producer of opium - which is used to
make heroin - churning out 87% of the global
supply, Costa added.
"Obviously we're very pleased,
because it's the result of restraint by
farmers, an active decision which is
important," said Costa, unveiling
preliminary findings from the agency's
first report on Afghan opium production.
Since US-led forces toppled the
fundamentalist Taliban nearly four years ago,
the international community has pumped
millions of dollars into drug eradication
efforts in Afghanistan.
The new figures are the first real success
for the anti-drug programme, which has long
faced the problem of how to coax
poverty-stricken farmers away from growing
lucrative, hardy and easily transportable
opium.
The decrease in drug production is likely to
increase optimism ahead of next month's
landmark parliamentary elections in
Afghanistan, which are seen as a crucial step
on the war-scarred country's road to
democracy.
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