Afghanistan Peace CampaignAnubha Sood, representative of the UNODC Afghanistan, said that many challenges in Afghanistan have affected the food supply of families.
Anubha Sood, representative of the UNODC Afghanistan, said that many challenges in Afghanistan have affected the food supply of families.
Representatives of UNODC Afghanistan said: “Drug users, farmers and vulnerable communities are being hit by multiple layers of crisis that are intensifying their already severe needs in Afghanistan. Across Afghanistan, farmers have suffered extreme loss of income following the opium ban by the de facto authorities in 2022. At the same time climate change is taking place here and now. Drought is severely impacting farmers’ capacity to cultivate crops, take care of their livestock and feed their families. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans are being returned from Pakistan in desperate need of resources to meet their basic needs. Amidst the global crisis unfolding, let us not forget that there are profound needs in Afghanistan. A crisis with potentially disastrous consequences. Now is the time to step up for the people of Afghanistan. And let us not forget them.”
After the ban on poppy cultivation, a number of farmers complained about the decrease in their income and lack of full access to alternative cultivation.
They asked the caretaker government to cooperate with them in the field of agricultural growth and increasing the sales of alternative crops.
“After opium cultivation was banned, there was no alternative for us. Neither with agricultural seeds nor anything else that is useful,” said Fazel Ahmad, a farmer.
“They should help us because we are poor people, for example, wheat, chemical fertilizer, so that we can plant it,” said Achaldi, a farmer.
“The government said that you should not plant drugs, instead we will give you fertilized seeds and chemical fertilizers, but it did not arrive,” said Mohammad Gul, a farmer.
Meanwhile, the Islamic Emirate once again emphasized that the Ministry of Agriculture is trying to distribute more alternative crops and create ways to increase farmers’ income.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman of the Islamic Emirate, said: “The countries that were affected by this issue should be concerned about narcotics and spend a lot of money to prevent narcotics. They should cooperate with the Islamic Emirate and the people of Afghanistan in general to provide an alternative livelihood for the farmers so that poppy cultivation in Afghanistan can be prevented forever and to make everyone happy.”
Earlier, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in a report said that opium poppy cultivation declined by 95% in Afghanistan.