Taliban eradicate a poppy field in Washir, district of Helmand province, Afghanistan, May 29, 2022. (AP File Photo)
Opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan more than quadrupled in 2026 despite a Taliban government ban, the United Nations said on Oct. 29, urging that impoverished farmers needed alternatives to the lucrative crop.
Cultivated areas reached 43,000 hectares (around 106,200 acres), up from 10,000 hectares in 2025, while estimated opium production jumped fivefold from 300 tonnes to 1,500 tonnes, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in a report.
Long the world's leading producer of poppies, Afghanistan was overtaken by Myanmar after a 2022 Taliban government ban crushed the trade in the country. But rampant poverty has driven some farmers to return to the trade.
Afghanistan's 2022 crackdown drove cultivated areas down from more than 200,000 hectares to 10,000 hectares in 2025.
Myanmar cultivated 53,000 hectares in 2025, with no 2026 figures available.
The Taliban authorities claim to have destroyed more than 22,000 hectares.
But UNODC said many poppy plots were concealed among cereal crops or behind walls, making them difficult to detect.
One hectare of wheat generated just over $770 in 2023, compared with $10,000 for a hectare of poppy, according to UNODC.
"Opium prices slightly decreased from $570 per kilogram in 2025 to $500 per kilogram in 2026, remaining well above pre-ban levels of less than $00 per kilogram," UNODC said in a press release.
"The fourfold increase in opium poppy cultivation shows the difficulty in sustaining decreases in illicit opium cultivation when poor farmers have no alternatives to feed their families," said UNODC Executive Director Monica Juma.
