KANDAHAR - Shortage of opium in the markets of Helmand and Kandahar provinces has increased the demand and prices have gone up. The key reasons for shortage in the market are government’s eradication programme and weak poppy crops in the region during the current season.

“Opium prices have increased from 80,000 Pakistani Rupees to 140,000 Rupees per 5 kilograms due to the shortage of opium in the local markets of Helmand and Kandahar,” reported a labourer of the poppy farms in Helmand.

Some of the poppy farmers in Helmand and Kandahar said they are unhappy due to the low harvest this season. They blamed security forces for allegedly spraying herbicides on some poppy fields that destroy the crops.

Helmand, the largest province of Afghanistan located in the southwest of the country, produces the bulk of Afghan opium.

The United Nations Office for Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) in its Opium Risk Assessment Survey 2012 expected the opium cultivation to remain very high in the province this year.

The main opium cultivation districts are Baghran, Garmser, Musa Qala, Nad Ali and Naher-i-Saraj where opium poppy was cultivated over an area of 63307 hectares during 2011.

The UNODC further reported that a significant reduction of opium cultivation was achieved in 2011 in central Helmand through a combination of measures that included provision of subsidized agricultural inputs, eradication, awareness campaign, security and presence of government institutions.

Helmand opium is also biggest source of funding for insurgency in the country. According to UNODC, the drug trade funnels an estimated $100 million to $400 million a year to the Taliban through levies on farmers and traffickers. Anti-Government elements use this cash to buy guns, ammunition and other materials to make home-made bombs as well as pay wages boosting incentives for poorer Afghans to join the insurgency.

In September 2011, the Afghan and foreign forces made the biggest seize of drugs worth an estimated $350 million in Helmand. The troops raided drug factory and discovered three laboratories suspected of manufacturing illicit narcotics.

This year, further decline of poppy cultivation is expected in the northern part of central Helmand. The UNODC report said some farmers from the region reportedly migrated to Farah province where they say opium cultivation is easier.