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2. Moving with the Times: How Opium Poppy Cultivation has Adapted to the Changing Environment in Afghanistan
- Author:
- David Mansfield and Paul Fishstein
- Publication Date:
- 06-2016
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU)
- Abstract:
- This “watching brief” has described a number of trends with respect to agriculture, land settlement, and opium poppy in several areas of Afghanistan. It highlights two separate but highly related issues. First, what will be farmers’ response to changes in technology and agro-economic conditions? While cost-reducing technology such as solar-powered tubewells may allow the cultivation of crops with lower returns than that of opium poppy, will farmers choose to grow these crops or will they stay with poppy? Will they even look to cultivate a second crop of opium poppy in May as some reports from the field suggest? Second, while the new technology has allowed the expansion of agricultural production to former desert areas and supported livelihoods for marginalised households, given Afghanistan’s tenuous water resources (leaving aside climate change) and population growth rate, how sustainable is an agriculture that continues to deplete groundwater resources by allowing their use on an essentially “free” basis?
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Science and Technology, Water, Drugs, and Farming
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan and Middle East
3. Briefing Note on Fieldwork in Balkh Province, May 2015 Opium Poppy and Rural Livelihoods
- Author:
- Paul Fishstein
- Publication Date:
- 10-2015
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU)
- Abstract:
- The following notes describe very initial findings from fieldwork done in ten villages in Balkh Province’s Chimtal and Char Bolak Districts during the first two weeks of May 2015. Located west of Mazar-e Sharif, these areas have been counted among the relatively insecure areas of the province, where households have moved in and out of opium poppy cultivation since it was banned in earnest in 2007.
- Topic:
- Security, Drugs, Trade, and Farming
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan and Middle East
4. Eyes Wide Shut: Counter-Narcotics in Transition
- Author:
- David Mansfield and Paul Fishstein
- Publication Date:
- 09-2013
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU)
- Abstract:
- It is now clear that the production and trade of opiates will have a significant influence on not only the economic, political and security landscape, but even the physical terrain of post-Transition Afghanistan. Levels of opium poppy cultivation are already rising; estimated cultivated area rose by 18 percent in 2012 and is likely to rise significantly over the next few years. And this trend may intensify further as politico-military actors make deals and form coalitions in response to the 2014 handover of security responsibility from the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) to the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF).
- Topic:
- NATO, International Cooperation, Drugs, Trade, and Illegal Trade
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan and Middle East