Afghanistan: Opium Poppy Crop Survey (Hansard, 3 November 2003)

§ Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime released its survey results for the 2003 opium poppy crop in Afghanistan on 29 October. The survey showed that opium poppy cultivation increased by 8 per cent from 74,000 hectares in 2002 to 80,000 hectares in 2003 while production rose by 6 per cent from 3,400 tonnes in 2002 to 3,600 tonnes in 2003. The UN survey also revealed that cultivation in traditional areas—where the Afghan Government have been able to exert control—decreased and moved into more marginal areas.

The UK use the UN survey, which is produced in partnership with the Afghan Government, as a reference point for its work as the lead nation on counter-narcotics support in Afghanistan. While the increase in opium cultivation and production is unwelcome, it is not unexpected. Experience of counter-narcotic policies in other countries, such as Pakistan and Thailand, shows that cultivation tends to increase before declining. Production also tends to move from traditional areas to more marginal and inaccessible areas to protect crops against law enforcement activity. Reductions in the traditional areas demonstrates that drug control policy has been effective where the Afghan Government have been able to exert control. Increasing security and stability in Afghanistan remains key to progress in reducing opium production.

Afghanistan's national drug control strategy, agreed earlier this year, has set the target of eliminating opium poppy by 2013. The UK is investing £70 million on sustainable measures over the next three years to support implementation of that strategy; additional staff are being deployed to Kabul to assist in the implementation. Other nations are also contributing, either directly or indirectly, to counter-narcotics work in Afghanistan, complementing the UK's efforts. I will be co-hosting, with President Karzai and the United Nations, an international conference in Kabul in February next year to boost further the international counter-narcotics effort in Afghanistan.