The book Tropic of Chaos by Christian Parenti dives into the problems of climate change and how these problems are creating chaos throughout many countries in the global south. One of these countries is Afghanistan. According to Parenti, Afghanistan faced a major drought in the year 2010 that was directly tied to climate change. The drought made it difficult for farmers to produce their normal crops like wheat, onions, and apricots (Parenti, 106). With conditions like drought leading to poverty around the country, farmers turned to alternative ways of making money, growing poppy. Poppy fields thrive in drought conditions as they only require a sixth of the water that is required to grow wheat. Poppy is also more profitable than wheat, which is another driving factor for these poor farmers to grow poppy instead of grains (Parenti, 107). One farmer was quoted saying, “Three years ago we didn’t grow much poppy, now everyone grows it, even the police chief (Parenti, 108).” Poppy plants produce raw opium. This is harvested by cutting the bulb of a poppy plant which will ooze out opium and eventually dry on the outside of the bulb which is then collected. This process can be done up to seven times per plant (Parenti, 109). Parenti’s book was published in 2011, meaning that some things in Afghanistan's poppy growing operations may have changed.
Afghanistan is still in the poppy cultivating game. According to one source, Afghanistan is still the world leader of opium production despite many efforts over the past decade by the US to stop the production of opium and poppy cultivation. With the United States no longer having a presence in Afghanistan, the country is being run by the Taliban. When Parenti wrote his book in 2011, the Taliban were not destroying poppy fields as it benefited them because they controlled the tax on the drug trade. With the Taliban back in power, they are now issuing a decree that would ban the growing of poppy and production of opium. The main driving factor behind this is due to the fact that narcotics are contrary to their religion of Islam. Many of the promises that the Taliban have made in the past have been broken, but it seems like the so called “Poppy Pledge” will be one that they continuously attempt to fulfill. Farmers in Hemland, the heart of the poppy growing industry in Afghanistan, say that the Taliban are coming to their farms where poppy is being grown in armed battalions and tearing up their fields with tractors and other ways of stopping the growth of poppy plants. Even with the Taliban's efforts to stop the cultivation of poppy, the prices of opium are still skyrocketing, which motivates farmers to continue to risk lives in order to make money.
The prices for opium are yet again on the rise as the farmers are more at risk of growing it since the Taliban retook power in Afghanistan. One smuggler says that the prices have more than tripled since the Taliban took over. The prices rose from 7,500 Pakistani Rupees (PKR) before the Taliban takeover to over 25,000 Pakistani Rupees (PKR) after the Taliban takeover. This makes sense as there is now more risk involved in growing poppy plants compared to when the Taliban were not destroying fields. In the bigger picture of yearly income, Afghan farmers were making around $425 million (USD) in 2021. In 2022, Afghan farmers were making upwards of $1.4 billion (USD) in 2022.
The problems of this growing opium problem in Afghanistan continue to go back to the bad droughts that they have endured over the last couple of decades. Climate change is the driving factor in these droughts that Afghanistan has faced, and the droughts only make their problems worsen. They are unable to grow the crops that they had grown in the past due to not being able to thrive in the conditions that the droughts cause. They had to adapt and begin growing these poppy plants which are a major factor in the growing drug trade, especially heroin. With the Taliban back in control, they can no longer grow these poppy fields without having the risk of their entire crop destroyed due to the new decree that the Taliban is enforcing which evidently lead to a massive jump in the price of opium. Many of the farmers in Afghanistan will continue to grow poppy as they are dependent on it to make their living for them and their families, but the potential risk of losing everything will always be in the back of their minds with the Taliban back in control. All of these problems that the people of Afghanistan are facing boil down to one major thing, and that is the changing climate which has caused terrible droughts throughout their country.
Hey Joe, this was a great read. I also did mine on the opium/poppy situation going on in Afghanistan. I thought it was great how you brought to light the inflation that the ban and the Taliban have caused on poppy's. Its awful hearing about that knowing that people rely on this poppy plant money to feed their families and that is it.
ReplyDeleteHey Joe, great post! I like that you talked about one of the reasons that the Taliban is now destroying poppy fields and how their motivation differs from what the American motivation was. It's not surprising that outlawing the poppies has made it that much more of a lucrative business by increasing the price so much.
ReplyDeleteHi Joe, well done! I feel like this is a topic that deserved to be discussed and updated after the release of Parenti's book. Although Afghanistan is still the leading poppy producer, I didn't realize how much the situation around the industry there had changed. If the droughts continue to intensify there and the Taliban destroy poppy fields, then what will the farmers do next? Climate change is truly changing the world.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Joe, I wrote about opium and climate change as well so it was fun reading yours and seeing how we differently approached the topic. I liked how much focus was specifically put on poppies in your blog, it went more in depth than mine and I learned a lot more about the topic. I briefly touched on the Taliban's ban on opium as well, but I liked to see that you not only went into the specifics of the ban but the results of what occurred due to the ban.
ReplyDeleteGreat job, Joe! I thought it was really interesting to see how politics had changed and that led the Taliban to changing their stance on poppies. It's terrible that they had to grow poppies out of necessity and now they can't even do that without fear of getting caught; I think Brooke posed a really great question about that, what do farmers do next? How will they survive? A really interesting and thought provoking post!
ReplyDeleteThat is an insane growth in a profit margin over one year, but I guess it just is a basic economic problem where demand is present, prices rise, specifically when it becomes harder to legally grow and the risk associated with it. Unfortunately, I do not see an immediate solution to this as climate change is not going to help the drought situation that originally made this whole problem occur. I liked learning more about this topic beyond the book, good job.
ReplyDeleteHi Joe - this was a really interesting read. I think your focus on how Afghanistan is the main global supplier of opium was really valuable. It is unfortunate that they have to rely on the production of opium due to the mass drought; drought seems to be a major threat in a lot of areas of the world as it is addressed in a lot of the blog posts. The risk for the farmers now that the Taliban is threatening to end the growth and sale of poppies is devastating to read about.
ReplyDeleteHi Joe, this was well thought out read. I enjoyed reading a different perspective of Afghanistans poppies, it's awful that they have to cultivate poppies out of need and that they can no longer do so without worrying about being discovered.
ReplyDeleteHey Joe
ReplyDeleteReading about how the drought affected the farmers of Afghanistan allowed me to see why many of them chose to grow poppy fields. I had no idea that poppy plants thrive in dry climates and need less water than plants like wheat. You almost can't blame them, they are just trying to get by with the situation they found themselves in.