UNODC survey finds Afghanistan's opium poppy area more than four times larger

29 October 2026

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime published its opium survey for Afghanistan and found cultivation rising sharply after years of decline.
The area under opium poppy grew by about 330 per cent, from roughly 10,000 hectares to more than 43,000 hectares.
Estimated production rose by about 400 per cent, from around 300 tonnes to just under 1,500 tonnes.
Poppy is now grown in 16 of the country's 34 provinces, five more than the previous year, and three out of every four hectares are in the north-east, which was not the traditional growing belt.
The farm gate price fell from 570 dollars to 500 dollars a kilogram, but that is still many times the level before the ban.
The survey records that authorities eradicated 22,000 hectares, and that farmers are hiding plots inside cereal fields and walled compounds and staggering planting times.
Before the ban announced in April 2022, cultivation had reached about 232,000 hectares and the country supplied around 80 per cent of the world's illicit opium.