CHAM KALAI, Afghanistan — The seeds flew from his hands into the soil. Wrapped in a woolen shawl against the cold, Khan Bacha sowed his fields with the only crop he says brings him enough money to pay his bills and feed his family: Poppies.
Afghanistan’s farmers are rushing to replant their fields with the base ingredient of opium after the country reaped its biggest poppy harvest ever last May. That harvest produced a staggering 5,500 metric tons (6,000 tons) of opium, 49 percent higher than the previous year and more than the combined output of the rest of the world, according to a report issued Wednesday by the United Nations’ drug control agency.
Bacha’s village, Cham Kalai, is in the eastern province of Nangarhar, which saw a dramatic five-fold increase in the area planted with poppies from 2012-2013, the country’s biggest increase. The province also illustrates all the factors fueling the increase and thwarting efforts by Afghan officials and their U.S. allies to eradicate the crop. Poverty is widespread, making the lucrative poppy crop a draw. Instability is high, making any attempt to control planting impossible.
In Bacha’s village of traditional sun-baked mud houses, there’s no electricity, no running water. There isn’t a health clinic for miles. Schools for girls are shunned as against Islam.