Afghanistan accounts for 90 percent of the world’s poppy crop
Source:“UNODC anticipates another large opium crop in Afghanistan in 2008,” UNODC, February 6, 2008.
Taliban earning $100 million from opium tax
In early 2008, the Taliban was earning $100 million revenue by taxing the opium trade in Afghanistan.
Source: “UNODC anticipates another large opium crop in Afghanistan in 2008,” UNODC, February 6, 2008.
Price difference between wheat and poppy seeds in Afghanistan
In an article about the drug eradication program in The New Yorker, writer Jon Lee Anderson reported on the price difference for farmers harvesting opium. According to interviews with local Afghan farmers, a farmer is able to receive “about thirty-three dollars from an acre of wheat, and between five hundred and seven hundred dollars from [...]
Earnings for opium farmer in Afghanistan
A worker harvesting opium in Afghanistan is able to earn $12 a day, compared to $2 a day for harvesting wheat. Reporter Elizabeth Rubin, writing for the New York Times Magazine, reported that certain schools in Afghanistan are closed in part “because teachers and students were busy harvesting the crop”.
Source: Elizabeth Rubin, “In the Land [...]
Opium harvest rose 38 percent in Afghanistan in 2007
The United Nations reported that in 2007, the opium harvest in Afghanistan rose 38 percent over the previous year. 8,200 metric tons of opium was harvested in 2007, up from 6,100 tons in 2006.
Source: Ed Johnson, “Taliban to Raise $100 million From Afghan Opium Crop,” Bloomberg, February 6, 2008.
Opium trade represents approximately one-third of Afghanistan’s GDP
Source: 2007 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, “Southwest Asia: Afghanistan,” United States Department of State, March 2007.
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