Afghan opium harvest falls

Afghanistan's opium harvest is expected to fall by 10 per cent this year as a dramatic decrease in poppy acreage offsets favourable growing conditions, the Bush administration said on Wednesday.

Roughly 107,400 hectares of farmland in the world's leading opium-growing nation were devoted to the illegal crop this year, a decline of nearly half from the record levels of 2004, the administration said.

But favourable weather meant the harvest would not decrease nearly as dramatically, the government said.

Current cultivation levels would lead to a potential harvest of 4,475 metric tons of opium, or enough for 526 tons of heroin, the government said.

"Continued reductions will be needed to reduce Afghanistan's drug trade to a level where it does not pose a threat to that nation's internal stability," said John Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

A UN report released last week found that while poppy cultivation decreased dramatically in the eastern part of the country, it increased in the northern and western regions.

That report found total output fell by only 2.4 per cent this year.

Separately, a UN official reported that Afghanistan was the world's second largest grower of cannabis, cultivating 30,000 hectares compared to Morocco, with 122,000 hectares. The cannabis plant yields hashish and marijuana.

Based on a survey, about 3.8 per cent of the Afghan population, or about 1 million people, themselves take drugs, including 2.2 per cent who use hashish and about 1 per cent either opium or heroin, said Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the Vienna-based UN Office on Drugs and Crime.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said illegal opium production is more of a risk to the country than terrorism.

Afghanistan's rugged mountain terrain and tradition of local warlords provide ideal conditions for the production of opium and its refined product, heroin.

The former Taleban government managed to ban poppy production in the last year of its rule, but harvests have risen to record levels since the 2001 US-led invasion.

Opium now accounts for 60 per cent of the country's gross domestic product, according to the United Nations.

The United States has earmarked US$700 ($1020.55) million to wipe out poppy production, while Britain is putting up US$100 million and seeking US$300 million more from other countries.

But the Afghan government fears rapid eradication could worsen security in southern and eastern areas where poppies are mostly grown and where militants are most active.

Opium is produced legally in several countries, including India, Turkey, Australia and France, for use in painkilling medicines.

- REUTERS