Drug Cultivation in Afghanistan Must Be Fought, UN Warns

Antonio Maria Costa, the Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, met with European Union External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner in Brussels on Tuesday in order to discuss the very important topic of opium cultivation in Afghanistan, whose level is gradually and dramatically increasing, leading to a real national crisis. The meeting unfolded in the presence of Afghani Minister of Counter-Narcotics Habibullah Quaderi as well.


The three of them talked about the opium crisis and exchanged information in that regard, with Costa pleading for sustainable aid in fighting such scourge. On the one hand, Costa highlighted that Afghani farmers need concrete, legal forms of gaining their incomes in order to cease cultivating opium as an alternative method of making money: "Steps to eradicate the opium poppy must go hand in hand with steps to eradicate poverty".

In reply, Ferrero-Waldner underlined the fact that the European Commission represents one of the biggest players in the fight against poppy cultivation through the creation of alternative means of livelihood. She added that the poppy cultivation phenomena significantly decreased in places where successful measures regarding governance, development and security, were employed.

The reason why the United Nations became so worried regarding the opium cultivation issue in Afghanistan was a series of data released by the UNODC's Afghanistan Opium Survey 2006 in Brussels on Tuesday, which highlighted the fact that the opium harvesting scored an impressive 59 per cent increase in 2006 that in turn led to a 6,100 ton crop, labeled by Ferrero-Waldner as "disappointing". She assumed responsibility for the next operations that are going to be led against the opium cultivation in Afghanistan in the following months.

In addition to the staggering figures, the UN report also represented a list of causes and effects of poppy cultivation and presented some political, health and strategic alternatives that may be beneficial in the long-term fight against such a trend.