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An Analysis of the Process of Expansion of Opium Poppy Cultivation to New Districts in Afghanistan

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STRATEGIC STUDY #1

Preliminary Report JUNE 1998

1. Objective

This study seeks to further UNDCP's understanding of the structural and motivational factors that lie behind the expansion of drug crop production new areas of cultivation.

2. Introduction

In the first year of the UNDCP Annual Opium Poppy Survey in 1994, opium poppy cultivation was found in 55 districts in eight provinces in Afghanistan. By 1998 there were 74 districts in 15 provinces cultivating opium poppy. Currently, despite much informed guesswork the reasons behind this geographical expansion in opium poppy cultivation are, in reality, still unknown. Moreover, there has been no research regarding why expansion typically occurs in areas adjacent to core areas of cultivation (see page 15). This Study seeks to explore the factors that facilitate the process of expansion in the context of Afghanistan, including increasing vulnerability, scattered land holdings, land tenure arrangements, reverse conditionality, and the activities of traffickers and their intermediaries. It is anticipated that by furthering our understanding of the process by which households enter into drug crop cultivation it will be possible to better target alternative development initiatives in order to satisfy both conventional development and drug control objectives.

3. A Preliminary Report

At the outset it must be noted that this is a preliminary report that will be consolidated with further work during 1998, 1999 and 2000. During this initial year of the Afghanistan Programme the focus of the fieldwork for this Study is on new areas of cultivation. As such this preliminary report draws on a series of interviews with opium poppy farmers in the provinces of Logar and Laghman (see page 16 & 17). Prior 1998 there had been no reports of poppy cultivation in Logar and reports of only insignificant amounts restricted to Qarghayi district, Laghman province.

To explore the process of expansion household interviews were conducted in Qarghayi and Mehterlam in Laghman, and Azro district in Logar province (see Annex A: Terms of Reference). Unfortunately, security constraints meant it was not possible to interview opium poppy farmers in Alingar and Alisheng districts in Laghman Province where opium poppy cultivation has also been reported for the first time in 1998.

In total, 20 semi-structured interviews were undertaken with farmers in the districts of Azro, Qarghayi and Mehterlam between 16 and 20 April 1998. A series of interviews were also undertaken with key informants with an in-depth knowledge of both the respective districts and opium poppy cultivation in particular. These interviews were conducted during the monitoring of the UNDCP Annual Afghanistan Opium Poppy Survey. Respondents were selected in discussion with the surveyors responsible for the districts of Azro, Qarghayi and Mehterlam. Selection was on the basis of the duration of village involvement in opium poppy cultivation and the geographical spread of the villages.

In order to explore the process by which opium poppy is introduced and consolidated within a specific village or location, interviews were not only held with households that cultivated opium poppy in 1998 but those in Qarghayi district who had cultivated in previous years. In order to distinguish between generic and context specific issues in-depth interviews were conducted over a wide geographical area within the districts. It is anticipated that these issues will provide a framework for further fieldwork in other districts during subsequent stages of the Study. Currently the limited number of districts in which the fieldwork was conducted means that the findings of this particular report should be treated as preliminary and may not necessarily be extrapolated for other provinces or districts within Afghanistan.

Both individual and group interviews were undertaken depending on the circumstances in the field. Opportunities in the field allowed interviews to be conducted with owner cultivators and the itinerant poppy harvesters under their employment. Unfortunately, despite the high incidence of women collecting opium gum during the fieldwork period, the local authorities restrictions on the hiring of local female staff prevented any interviews being conducted with women.

4. Future Analysis

To broaden the analytical base of this study further household interviews will be conducted in other districts where opium poppy has been cultivated for the first time in 1998. If security conditions prevail these interviews will be undertaken in Sarobi in Kabul, Chak and Jaghatu in Wardak and Tagab in Kapisa.

Interviews will be undertaken in new districts and provinces should new areas come under opium poppy cultivation in subsequent years. Interviews will also be conducted in the districts of Balkh, Chemtal, and Char Bolak in Balkh province to explore the process of expansion in these predominantly Pashtoon areas, when security conditions allow.

To document the process of introduction and consolidation in Azro, Qarghayi and Mehterlam, follow-up interviews will be conducted in 1999 and 2000.

The infancy of the Afghanistan programme means that this Preliminary Report documents the process of the expansion of opium poppy cultivation into new areas of cultivation in the provinces of Logar and Laghman. Fieldwork for a later Strategic Study will focus on the possible links between those areas in which opium poppy cultivation has been reduced and those areas in which opium poppy cultivation has been newly introduced or its cultivation has increased further, the so called ?balloon effect'. This fieldwork will be conducted in UNDCP's target districts in 1999, drawing on the initial household interviews undertaken for the Socio- Economic Baseline Study for the Poppy Reduction Project, C28. By re-visiting a number of those respondents from socio-economic groups with insufficient land for subsistence, this Study will identify the coping strategies which marginal groups adopt in response to UNDCP's poppy reduction initiatives. If required tracer studies will be conducted to explore the structural and motivational factors that influenced households in their decision to relocate.1/

1/ This work will form the basis for Strategic Study 7 'The Balloon Effect': An Analysis of the Process of Relocation of Opium Poppy Cultivation in Afghanistan.