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Yahoo! My Yahoo! Mail More Yahoo! Services Account Options New User? Sign Up Sign In Help Yahoo! Search web search Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Australia China India Indonesia Japan Malaysia Philippines Thailand Vietnam Afghan opium output drops 50 percent: UN AFP - 16 minutes ago Send IM Story Print KABUL (AFP) - – Opium output in Afghanistan, the world's biggest producer of the drug, has dropped by almost half this year due to a poppy crop disease but its value has soared, a UN report said Thursday. Afghanistan has produced an estimated 3,600 tonnes of opium this year, almost 50 percent of the 2009 output, according to the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). But the value of the opium rose by 38 percent to 604 million dollars at the farm gate, its Afghanistan Opium Survey 2010 said. The report, released in Kabul, put the value of opium output at five percent of Afghanistan's gross domestic product (GDP) this year, and said this was more than six times the value of the country's wheat crop. Afghanistan produces around 90 percent of the world's opium. The report said the decline was caused by a fungal disease that affected opium poppy fields in the major growing provinces, mainly Helmand and Kandahar, where the Taliban insurgency is concentrated. "The major effect of the disease was visible in the yield, which dropped to 29.2 kilograms per hectare, a 48 percent reduction from 2009," the report said. The report said the planted area remained the same at 123,000 hectares (305,000 acres), with 96 percent of production in southern and western provinces. It also found that the number of households involved in opium cultivation rose by one percent to 248,700, involving six percent of the country's estimated population -- the same as in 2009. It said almost all cultivation "took place in nine provinces in the southern and western regions including the most insecure provinces in the country, which "substantiates the link between insecurity and opium cultivation". The Taliban, waging war for almost nine years, are believed to get much of their funding from Afghanistan's drug production, valued at close to three billion dollars a year. Their presence in parts of the south -- particularly the central Helmand valley where much of Afghanistan's poppy is grown -- is directly linked to cultivation and distribution of opium and heroin. Their involvement in the drugs trade is said by experts to stretch from direct facilitation -- such as providing farmers with seed, fertiliser and cash advances on their crop -- to distribution and protection. The consistency of the area under opium production indicates a major failure on the part of NATO's civilian partners -- notably provincial reconstruction teams (PRTs) -- to convince farmers to switch to alternative crops. Opium cultivation in Helmand dropped seven percent, which the report said was "statistically not significant" and the province remained the country's largest opium producer, accounting for 53 percent of the total. Nevertheless, Helmand Governor Mohammad Gulab Mangal attibuted the fall to a crop substitution programme administered by the British-run PRT, which said it had reached 48,000 farmers. "This continued success highlights the progress that is being made by the Food Zone Programme in improving adherence to the rule of law and stimulating a legal economy within Helmand," Mangal said in a statement. Kandahar was the only province in the south to show a significant increase in cultivated area, up 30 percent, the report said. The drastic fall in opium output was pressuring prices, with the average farm-gate price of dry opium up 164 percent compared to last year, at 169 dollars a kilogram, it said. That rise could encourage farmers to grow opium in the coming season, though in many areas, particularly Helmand and Kandahar, Taliban pressure to produce opium is as important as price factors, growers and dealers have said. The study noted that low prices in 2009 had "started to show an increasing number of farmers stopping opium cultivation". "It is worrying that the current high sale price of opium in coordination with a lower wheat price may encourage farmers to go back to opium cultivation," it said. The high price of this season's yield raises questions about previous UNODC assertions that Afghanistan's drugs lords were hoarding opium to keep prices high. "The price of opium has risen significantly due to low production figures this year, which we would not expect to see if these stockpiles existed," a Western official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. UNODC had estimated stockpiles at 10,000 tonnes, twice annual world demand of 5,000 tonnes and equivalent to two years' supply of heroin for addicts, or three years of morphine for medical use. 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