Afghan opium crop down, prices plummet

Afghan opium crop down, prices plummet: "

KABUL, Sept 2 — Opium cultivation in Afghanistan fell by 22 per cent this year as prices for the drug tumbled causing farmers to switch to other crops, the United Nations said today.

Some 1.6 million Afghans, or 6.4 per cent of the population, are involved in the illegal drugs trade compared to 2.4 million last year, according to an annual UN report, a rare bit of good news for Western efforts in the country, where an 8-year-old war against the Taliban is at its most violent. While the industry is mainly controlled by criminal gangs and corrupt officials, the Taliban are said to siphon off millions of dollars from the opium trade by imposing taxes on farmers and smugglers in return for ensuring safe passage of the drug.

Western officials say the illegal narcotics trade also fuels rampant corruption and crime, and undermines the Afghan state they are trying to prop up.

Afghanistan has long been the producer of about 90 per cent of the world's opium, a thick paste from poppy that is processed to make heroin. In 2007, it broke all records, but cultivation has since started to decline.

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