According to Parenti’s Tropic of Chaos, Afghanistan produced 90% of the world’s opium population in 2011. How are they able to do this? By growing and selling poppies. The best environment for poppies to germinate is in an area with a significant amount of dry soil and daylight. Parenti states, “...poppy uses only one-sixth the water needed for wheat.” As climate change is increasingly becoming worse, the high temperatures and droughts for Afghanistan are becoming worse. However, this is a huge benefit when it comes to planting and producing poppies. Although poppy production is increasing with drought, it’s not an invincible plant. Yes, it uses less water to germinate and grow, but extreme droughts can prevent this from happening at all. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), cultivation had a 32% increase and poppy production had a 10% decrease in 2022 due to the droughts. The efforts of farmers are increasing while the results are not what they are hoping for. In general, compared to wheat, poppies are sought out more and are more successful when it comes to production.
Farmers and producers plan thoroughly throughout the year when they have to plant and harvest the poppies. During the months through June to October, Afghanistan gets about three to ten millimeters of precipitation per month. Since that would not be ideal for germinating poppies, farmers plant poppies during the month of October to give the poppies a good chance to get the most precipitation they can before the dry months come back around. “Conditions in Afghanistan also have a complex intra-annual interaction with large-scale climate phenomena, specifically the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Indian Ocean Dipole. The latter is associated with drought conditions in Afghanistan” (Climate Change Knowledge Portal).
As wheat productions decrease with drought, Afghanistan gets their money out of poppies rather than the little amount of wheat they have. With this, Parenti says, “...though grain prices have surged through 2008, poppy still earns more than wheat.” Not only does this make Afghanistan rich in money, but it also makes them rich in production. With an increase in drought and a high price for poppies, the production and sales have slowly increased throughout the years. In 2011 when the book, Tropic of Chaos came out, Afghanistan spiked with a production of about 6,000 tons of poppies. Since then, the biggest year for poppy production in Afghanistan was 2017 with almost 9,000 tons of poppies, but rates have decreased back down to about 6,500 tons in the year of 2022.
Since the Taliban overtook Afghanistan back in 2021, the poppy production rates have significantly decreased. When the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, they banned the poppy production from the country entirely. Taliban fighters would go around the country and destroy poppy fields while the farmers watched. For some of the farmers who contribute to the poppy population, growing poppies provided for them and their families. Their livelihoods depended on the growing and selling of poppies, and the banning of this plant has put them in a crisis, especially with the country itself going through the worst drought it has experienced in years. According to NPR, “Day laborers can earn upwards of $300 a month harvesting opium from the poppies…the ban will likely strike a heavy blow to millions of impoverished farmers and day laborers who rely on proceeds from the crop to survive.” With an incline in drought and a decline in income for each farmer, survival in Afghanistan is becoming increasingly more difficult with scarce food and other materials required to get through the drought.
I also wrote about the opium crisis in Afghanistan, so it was fun to read your blog on it. I liked how a large part of your blog focused on what makes opium such a lucrative crop since that was the most frustrating aspect about the crisis to me. There is little to no reason for some farmers to grow wheat or fruit over opium, simply because the reliability of the crop is far too high. Its a problem that feeds into itself where drought causes famine, which causes more people to swap to opium cultivation, which causes issues with drug use, etc. and just leads to a societal spiral.
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DeleteI also wrote about poppy's and the epidemic that it has had on Afghanistan. It was wonderful seeing another persons perspective on this topic. I really liked how you talked about when opium production spiked and how it has gone down with the new regulations. It will be interesting to see what the economy will look like in the next few years after seeing opium decrease. I wonder if a new crop will become more popular in place of the poppy.
ReplyDeleteHey Shelby great post! I like that you included a planting chart for poppies to show the two separate growing seasons. I wonder how the reduction in poppy production in Afghanistan since the Taliban took over is affecting the rest of the world.
ReplyDeleteHey Shelby! I really enjoyed your post! I thought the information about Poppy farmers in the book was interesting and I was eager to learn more about it in your blog post. That makes me really sad that the Taliban is putting a ban on poppy farming and that is going to take a huge toll on the farmers in Afghanistan. I also really liked the pictures you included in your post!
ReplyDeleteHi Shelby, I really liked your post! First off, one thing that caught my eye was the first picture, I didn't realize exactly what poppy plants looked like. Also, I knew that they didn't receive a lot of rain, but not only three to ten millimeters sometimes. This stat put things into perspective and made me see just how little rain they really get.
DeleteHey Shelby, I also wrote about this topic of poppy production in Afghanistan. The one thing that you also wrote about that was the opposite of what I thought would have happened was how when the Taliban took over, the poppy production decreased. While it is definitely one of the few good decrees they have actually continued to enforce, it was totally shocking to see.
ReplyDeleteHello, I enjoyed reading through this post. I enjoyed the visual aid of the planting/growth graph. I am intrigued on how this situation will play out. I hope violence is not the action that is resorted to, and altogether this is a sticky situation. It started because of CC induced drought, and flourished because of it, and poppy plants growing conditions. Now with the Taliban takeover I don't know what to think will happen next.
ReplyDeleteHey Shelby
ReplyDeleteThe production of the poppy plant is fascinating. It's difficult to read that farmers must forgo their wheat crop due to drought and rely on the poppy to stay afloat. The amount of revenue it brings in will only increase yield, year after year. Even though the Taliban have taken over, the price still continues to rise.
Interesting post! I was unaware that poppy production was decreasing due to drought. While this is good for the world, this is very serious for the farmers that rely on it for their livelihoods. This decrease in yield is likely only the beginning of the need for these people to relocate entirely.
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