Afghan farmers suffer major losses after opium poppy ban, report says

Afghanistan's opium poppy cultivation fell to 10,200 hectares this year, one of the lowest levels recorded in the country's history, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said, but the Taliban ban has pushed farmers in northern provinces into severe economic hardship.

The nationwide ban has reduced cultivation from 232,000 hectares in 2022, before the Taliban returned to power, but caused a shift in cultivation patterns from traditional southern areas to northern provinces farther from direct Taliban control, UNODC said.

In Badakhshan province on the Tajikistan border, poppy production has increased since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.

In Badakhshan and neighbouring provinces of Kunduz and Balkh, "on average, 85% of households reported either no replacement or only partial replacement of (their poppy) income" after abandoning production, according to a UNODC survey released Monday.

Many farmers turned to growing wheat and other grains, but in 2023 "the average per-hectare income from wheat was just $770 (€654.6), whereas opium poppy yielded around $10,000 (€8,500) per hectare," the agency said.

"This income loss goes far beyond households, weakening rural purchasing power, reducing local economic activity, and increasing communities' overall vulnerability to poverty and food insecurity," said Oliver Stolpe, UNODC regional representative for Afghanistan, Central Asia, Iran and Pakistan.

The agency called for efforts to encourage farmers to cultivate high-value crops such as saffron, nuts including almonds, pistachios and walnuts, medicinal plants and fruits including apricots and grapes, which are better adapted to Afghanistan's arid climate and mountainous terrain.

Opium production fell 32% to an estimated 296 tonnes this year, down from 436 tonnes in 2024, according to a UNODC report released in November. Farmers' income from opium sales fell 48% from $260 million (€221m) in 2024 to $134 million (€114m) in 2025.

Surveys in Badakhshan, Balkh and Kunduz showed 85% of households have been unable to compensate for lost income, leaving communities in urgent need of economic support, UNODC said.

Despite this, compliance with the ban remains high in surveyed areas, with 95% of farmers in Badakhshan and Balkh reporting they stopped growing poppy due to legal restrictions.

The price of dry opium fell 27% to $570 (€484) per kilogramme in 2025 compared with $780 (€663) in 2024, but remains five times higher than the pre-ban average.

The Taliban banned opium poppy cultivation, as well as production, sale and trafficking of all narcotics, in April 2022, the year after they returned to power in Kabul. Taliban authorities reported eradicating more than 4,000 hectares of opium poppy this year.

Prior to the Taliban's return to power in 2021, revenues from poppies were for years considered one of Afghanistan's main sources of economic output. Afghanistan's opium output peaked in 2017 at nearly 9,900 tonnes worth $1.4 billion (€1.19bn), accounting for about 7% of the country's GDP.

"Afghanistan's path to overcoming illicit crop cultivation requires coordinated, long-term investments, including through international partnerships," Stolpe said.

"It is about placing equal emphasis on empowering Afghan farmers through alternative income-generating activities, eradicating illicit crops and countering drug trafficking, while reducing demand through enhanced prevention and treatment."

Worsening weather conditions including droughts and low rainfall have left more than 40% of agricultural land barren, UNODC said.

The return of approximately 4 million Afghans from neighbouring countries, representing around 10% of the country's population, has intensified competition for scarce jobs and resources. These factors, combined with reductions in humanitarian aid, could make opium poppy cultivation more attractive.

Production and trafficking of synthetic drugs, especially methamphetamine, continues to increase since the ban. Seizures in and around Afghanistan were about 50% more frequent by the end of 2024 compared with the third quarter of 2023.

"As agricultural-based opiate production declines, synthetic drugs appear to have become the new business model for organised crime groups due to the relative ease of production, the greater difficulty in detection and relative resilience to climate changes," UNODC said.

Counter-narcotics strategies must broaden beyond opium to integrate synthetic drugs in monitoring, interdiction and analysis, as well as demand-reduction responses, the agency said.

"Afghanistan's drug problem is not confined to its borders. The dynamics of supply, demand and trafficking involve both Afghan and international actors," said Georgette Gagnon, deputy special representative of the secretary-general for Afghanistan and officer in charge of the UN political mission in the country.

"Addressing this challenge requires collaboration among key stakeholders," Gagnon concluded.