30 Sep 2010

UNODC / AFGHAN OPIUM SURVEY

The latest UN report on opium output in Afghanistan says that the drug has dropped by almost a half this year due to a crop disease but its value has soared. Afghanistan has produced an estimated 3,600 tonnes of opium this year, almost 50 percent of the 2009 output. FILE

Posted at: September 30, 2010 11:55 am

Duration: 01:19

Available in: SD

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Full script

STORY: UNODC / AFGHAN OPIUM SURVEY
TRT: 1.19
SOURCE: UNODC
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: NATS

DATELINE: FILE

SHOTLIST:

FILE / UNODC / DATE UNKNOWN, AFGHANISTAN

1. Close up, scrapping the poppy capsule
2. Med shot, farmers scrapping poppy capsules
3. Close up, measuring poppy capsule
4. Various shots, farmer scrapping poppy capsule
5. Various shots, lawn mowers mowing poppy field
6. Various shots, farmers cutting down poppies
7. Close up, poppy field and tip of weapon
8. Various shots, Afghanis military guarding field

STORYLINE:

Afghan opium production has decreased by almost 50 per cent this year, the United Nations said in a new report released today, while cautioning that rising prices on the global market may induce farmers to cultivate more of the lucrative crop.

Total opium production is estimated at 3,600 metric tons, down 48 per cent from 2009, according to the 2010 Afghan Opium Survey, produced by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.

The agency says the sharp drop is mainly due to plant infection that took a heavy toll on the major poppy-growing provinces of Helmand and Kandahar. As a result, yield fell 48 per cent to 29.2 kilogrammes per hectare, from 56.1 kilogrammes per hectare compared with the previous year.

The report also notes that much of the cultivation continued to take place in the southern and western provinces of the country.

At the same time, all 20 poppy-free provinces remained so in 2010 and four other provinces – Kunar, Laghman, Zabul and Heart – were almost poppy-free.

According to UNODC, surveys carried out last year showed that farmers were willing to consider abandoning opium cultivation due to the low price it fetched.

But while prices were on the decline from 2005 to 2009, they are again rising, with the gross income for farmers per hectare having increased by 36 per cent to $4,900.