The Program for Culture & Conflict Studies provides a central hub for analysts to understand the provincial impact of poppy cultivation in Afghanistan. Our current focus is on Eastern and Southern Afghanistan, areas most affected by the influence of opium. The following pages provide overall summaries of regions in Afghanistan, as well as drop-down links with greater detail on individual provinces within Afghanistan.

Opium Trends in Eastern Afghanistan
Opium cultivation and production is an epidemic in Afghanistan. Since the fall of the Taliban in late 2002, opium production has steadily risen from near nothing to capture over 90% (93% according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime) of the world’s opiate trade. This affects rural farmers, government ministers, and everyone in-between. By some estimates opium revenues, all unofficial, illegal, and untaxed, account for half of the Afghan gross national product. At the cultivation level alone the revenues exceed one billion dollars, before the transport, refining, and export are tallied. (Read On...)

Opium Trends in Southern Afghanistan
Opium production in Southern Afghanistan has risen rapidly, mostly in Helmand, Kandahar, and Nimroz. In those three provinces alone, production has increased by over 36,198 hectares (an area approximately as large as the Gaza Strip, or Manhattan, the Bronx, and Brooklyn together), an increase greater than the entire production of Eastern Afghanistan. In fact, Southern Afghanistan accounts for approximately two-thirds of the globe’s opium. (Read on...)

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