In April 2022, Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada issued a decree prohibiting the cultivation of poppies. The Taliban have heavily cracked down on its cultivation in Afghanistan with dramatic results. Former opium fields are now devoted to the cultivation of grain.
Citing satellite imagery, illicit drugs expert David Mansfield confirmed reports that poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has been reduced to levels not seen since 2001. In the south, it has been reduced by at least 80% in one year. “It is likely that cultivation will be less than 20% of what it was in 2022. The scale of the reduction will be unprecedented,” Mansfield was quoted by the BBC as having said.
US Special Representative for Afghanistan Thomas West concurred, tweeting: “Reports that the Taliban have implemented policies to significantly decrease opium poppy production this year are credible and important. Every country in the region and beyond has a shared interest in an Afghanistan free of drugs.”
