UN says Afghan opium crop to shrink

[Coventina]

Source: Associated Press

KABUL (AP) — Afghanistan's production of opium poppies will likely decrease in 2009, but cultivation of the illegal crop remains entrenched in the country's most unstable southern provinces, the U.N. said in a report released Sunday.

The falling price of opium and rising price of wheat — along with drought and pressure from the government — brought production down in most of the country in 2008, the U.N.'s Office on Drugs and Crime said in its annual winter survey.

The survey anticipates a further decrease in opium cultivation and yields this year but doesn't predict how much it will drop. Of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, 18 have been declared poppy-free.

"This year could be a turning point," said Kai Eide, the top U.N. official in Afghanistan. "A major reduction is within reach."



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