After Taliban Banned Opium, Kids Became Malnourished

Afghanistan's once-empty poppy fields are quietly filling in again, and hunger is a big reason why. After the Taliban's sweeping opium ban that started in 2022 nearly wiped out cultivation, farmers like 28-year-old Mohammad Dawood in the Balkh province shifted to legal crops such as wheat and cotton—only to find they no longer earned enough to feed their children, per Reuters. "We were doing well," said Dawood. "Now, my children ‌are malnourished." Aid cuts, drought, and slumping prices for legal crops have pushed incomes down, while child malnutrition rises in rural clinics surrounded by non-poppy fields.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime estimates poppy production has more than quadrupled this year, with the area populated by opium poppies growing to about 43,000 hectares, though that's still far below pre-ban levels. Farmers now hide their poppies among cereal crops and behind mud walls, even as the Taliban insist eradication continues and dispute the UN's figures, per Reuters.

Analysts warn that if Afghanistan's opium trade fully rebounds, heroin markets from Europe onward could feel the impact. "The [Taliban] and the international community need to work together to support farming communities by investing in livelihoods, farming infrastructure, and access to markets," the UN agency's Monica Juma tells the AP.