The Strategic Studies Series
One of UNDCP's principal objectives is to strengthen international action against illicit drug
production. In Afghanistan, its principal objective is to reduce and eventually eliminate existing
and potential sources of opium cultivation. It is recognised that in order to achieve this there is a
need to further the understanding of the diversity of conditions and priorities that different
socio-economic and spatial groups take into account when making decisions about their
involvement in opium cultivation.
The Strategic Study Series is one of the tools by which UNDCP intends to document the process
of lesson learning within the ongoing Afghanistan Programme. Studies in this series will focus
on issues that are considered to be of strategic importance to improving the design of current and
future alternative development initiatives in Afghanistan. Information collection for these studies
is undertaken by the UNDCP Drug Control Monitoring System (AFG/C27) in close coordination
with the ongoing presence and project activities of UNDCP's Poppy Reduction project
(AFG/C28). Recognising the inherent problems associated with undertaking research into the
drugs issue in Afghanistan, emphasis is given to verifying findings through systematic
information-gathering techniques and methodological pluralism. As such, the Studies will be
undertaken in an iterative manner, seeking to consolidate preliminary findings with further
fieldwork. It is envisaged that this approach will allow panel or longitudinal studies to be
undertaken which assess both the changes in opium cultivation and lives and livelihoods
amongst different socio-economic, gender and spatial groups over the lifetime of the Afghanistan
programme.
These Strategic Studies will be an integral part of the regional study, "The Dynamics of the Illicit
Opiate Industry in South West Asia" due to be published and disseminated in early 2001. The
purpose of this regional study will be to: (i) contextualise the illicit drugs situation in South West
Asia for the donor community, addressing issues of interest to their development agendas,
including poverty, health, gender and the environment (ii) and for UNDCP to identify ?best
practice' in the design and implementation of alternative development, law enforcement and
demand reduction initiatives.
Strategic Studies will include:

An Analysis of the Process of Expansion of Opium Poppy Cultivation to New Districts in
Afghanistan.

The Dynamics of Farmgate Opium Trade and the Coping Strategies of Opium Traders.

The Role of Opium as a Source of Informal Credit.

The Role of Opium as a Livelihood Strategy for Returnees.

Access to Labour: The dynamics of the labour market for opium poppy in Afghanistan.

The Role of Women in Poppy Cultivation in Afghanistan and the Consequences Arising
from its Replacement for Women's Economic and Social Standing.

?The Balloon Effect': An Analysis of the Process of Relocation of Opium Poppy
Cultivation in Afghanistan.
Executive Summary
Experience has shown that alternative development has been closely associated with reductions
in drug crop cultivation at the local level. Households have been found to abandon coca and
opium cultivation despite their reported unassailable profitability. Moreover, off-farm income
opportunities and alternative cropping systems have led to increases in income in both absolute
terms and relative to drug crops. However, despite certain localised successes drug crop
cultivation continues to increase, often in areas adjacent to project locations.
This Study seeks to explore the socio- economic processes that have facilitated the expansion of
opium poppy cultivation into new areas of cultivation in Afghanistan. The fieldwork was
conducted in the districts of Qargahayi and Mehterlam in Laghman and Azro district in Logar. In
order to distinguish between generic and context specific issues in-depth interviews were
conducted over a wide geographical area within these three districts. 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. Interviews will also be undertaken in new
districts and provinces should new areas come under opium poppy cultivation in subsequent
years.
Interviews focused on a number of key issues relating to the possible motivations and
circumstances that influence households in their decision to begin opium poppy cultivation,
including increasing vulnerability, scattered land holdings, land tenure arrangements, reverse
conditionality, and the activities of traffickers and their intermediaries.
Although this document represents an initial phase of a Study that will be consolidated with
further fieldwork in other locations during 1999 and 2000, preliminary findings would suggest
that:

In its initial year of cultivation in both Laghman and Logar, opium poppy is often
undertaken by owner-cultivators on an experimental basis. As such opium poppy
cultivation tends to be restricted to a small number of households in any one location
during its initial year of cultivation. These small plots of opium poppy provoke the
interest of neighbouring households much like any agricultural demonstration plot,
raising the threat of expansion in subsequent years.

The interdependent nature of labour markets and commercial trade between
districts, combined with cross district ethnic and family links, has led to a high
degree of exposure to opium cultivation in both Laghman and Logar. In particular a
number of respondents had family members who worked as itinerant opium poppy
harvesters in neighbouring districts during periods of agricultural underemployment.

The expansion of opium poppy new areas of cultivation would appear be facilitated
by itinerant poppy harvesters. The prevalence of poppy in the districts of Nangarhar
and the labour intensive nature of the poppy harvest would seem to have provided
significant employment opportunities for migrant labourers from both within Nangarhar
and neighbouring provinces. For those migrants who are willing to travel between
climatic zones, opium poppy provides the opportunity of securing two months
employment during its harvest. The interdependence of the labour market between these
different climatic zones would suggest that any strategy aimed at reducing opium
cultivation in one district would also need to address on and off-farm income
opportunities for labourers from neighbouring districts. A failure to absorb the surplus in
labour supply caused by a reduction in opium poppy cultivation may provoke itinerant
harvesters to search for employment opportunities in neighbouring districts. Given the
suitability of the environmental conditions in most of Afghanistan and the particular
skills these migrants have to offer, relocation of opium poppy cultivation may be a
possible response.

Respondents did not attribute an economic value to household labour in the
assessment of the total costs of agricultural inputs. Providing alternative income
earning opportunities for family members, including women, might increase the
opportunity cost households associate with opium cultivation and thereby reduce its
perceived profitability.

Traders do not appear to take a pro-active role in the expansion of opium
cultivation. In the initial year of cultivation only one household was found to have been
approached by traders either during the time of planting or at harvest. However, in
subsequent years it was reported that traders offered advances and visited households at
the farmgate in order to purchase opium. This may suggest that the farmgate trade in
opium is not highly structured but a relatively free market that follows market signals
rather than creates them.
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 SocioEconomic 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.
5. The extent of opium poppy cultivation in Logar and Laghman
5.1 Logar Province
By mid April 1998 opium poppy had been found in 10 villages out of a total of 54 villages
surveyed in Azro district. There was no evidence to suggest that these villages had cultivated
opium poppy prior to 1998.2/
Eight of the ten villages that were found to be cultivating opium poppy in Azro were
concentrated in the Tang area. Tang is a low-lying area of Azro district and as such is more
suitable for opium poppy cultivation due its warmer climate (see page 16). Moreover, Tang is
also only 2 hours walk from Hisarak in Nangarhar province, an opium poppy producing district
with ethnic and commercial links to Azro.
Key informants suggest that opium poppy cultivation in Azro is currently restricted to small plots
cultivated by one or two farmers on an experimental basis. The results from the UNDCP Annual
Opium Poppy Survey for 1998 indicate the intensity of opium cultivation is variable, ranging
from less than 1%, to 30 % of the total cultivable land in those villages cultivating opium poppy
in 1998. However, on average only 3.5% of cultivable land was cultivated with opium in those
villages where opium was being grown in 1998.
Table 1:
Villages in
Azro
District,
Logar
Province
Cultivating
Opium
Poppy in
1998
Village
name
Akbarkhel
Number of
households
Poppy as a
% of total
cultivated
land
Poppy
cultivation
(Jeribs)
Total land
(Jeribs)
160
700
4.5
0.6
6
18
5
27.7
Gata
10
8
1
12.5
Kharaba
10
30
3
10
Kuz Kondai
Kholaw
8
25
5
20
Mujibkhel
3
8
1.5
19
15
20
4
20
Sornow
8
10
2
20
Spando Kas
8
30
1
3.3
10
10
3
30
Bara kondai
kholaw
Raghi
Tanri
5.2. Laghman Province
Opium poppy cultivation is not new to all the villages in Qarghayi District. The 1996 UNDCP
Annual Opium Poppy Survey revealed small scale cultivation amounting to less than 5 jeribs.3/
In 1997 resource and security constraints meant that Qarghayi could not be surveyed. Given
reports that opium poppy had increased considerably in 1998, Qarghayi was
included in the Survey in 1998.
The initial results from the 1988 survey reveal that all 61 villages in Qarghayi cultivated opium
poppy. On average 2.4% of cultivable land was dedicated to opium poppy in 1998. However, the
intensity of opium poppy cultivation varied from less than 1% to almost 17% with those villages
with the highest intensity concentrated in the south of the district bordering Nangarhar.
Indeed, towards the northern villages of Qarghayi, opium poppy is less evident. Interviews with
farmers revealed that many had planted opium poppy for the first time this year. There were a
significant number of examples of experimental planting in both Qarghayi and Mehterlam with
opium poppy cultivated in a single line amidst a field of gandana and coriander, and sometimes
potato.
In Mehterlam district 24 villages were found to be cultivating opium poppy. Key informants
indicate that poppy cultivation is relatively insignificant in the majority of these villages with one
or two households cultivating less than one jerib each. The results from the UNDCP Annual
Opium Poppy Survey indicate that 69.5 jeribs of opium poppy were cultivated in Mehterlam this
year, representing only 1.2% of the total cultivable land in those villages cultivating opium
poppy. Village cultivation was found to range from one half of one jerib to 10 jeribs. The highest
intensity of opium poppy cultivation was in Bazal where 15 % of total village cultivable land
was dedicated to opium poppy.
Although opium poppy has been reported in the districts of Alingar and Alisheng in Laghman it
was not possible to visit these two districts due to security constraints.
6. The links between core areas and new areas of opium poppy cultivation
Fieldwork would suggest that the interdependent nature of labour markets and commercial trade
between districts, combined with cross district ethnic and family links, has led to a high degree
of exposure to opium cultivation in both Laghman and Logar.
According to respondents, population growth has fuelled a process of both permanent and
temporary migration in Azro district. As such, some migrants from Azro have settled in
Jalalabad and Pakistan on a permanent basis, leaving their lands in the custody of family
members or tenants. Temporary migration has proven to be a viable strategy during times of
seasonal under-employment in Azro. The proximity of the lower lying districts of Hisarak,
Sherzad and Khogiani provide seasonal migrants with temporary employment opportunities
during the spring harvest in April, whilst allowing them to return to their own land to harvest in
May/June. Indeed, respondents indicated that geographic and tribal links had made Hisarak a
particularly popular destination for Ahmadzai Pashtoons of Azro district in search of seasonal
employment amongst their tribal affiliates.
The prevalence of opium poppy in Hisarak, Sherzad and Khogiani and the labour intensive
nature of the poppy harvest would seem to have provided significant employment opportunities
for migrant labourers from Azro and other districts. However, for those migrants who were
willing travel further afield the climatic variations between (i) Shinwar, (ii) Sukhurud and
Khogiani (iii) Sherzad and (iv) Hisarak offer the opportunity of securing two months
employment harvesting opium poppy. Respondents in Azro indicated that family members had
spent a number of years harvesting opium poppy in the neighbouring districts in Nangarhar. It
was suggested that through this seasonal work family members had acquired the necessary
expertise in opium poppy cultivation, later prompting opium cultivation amongst some
households in Azro.
The importance of prior contact with core areas of opium poppy cultivation was reiterated in
interviews in both Mehterlam and Qarghayi. Prior experience of harvesting opium poppy in
Khogiani and Shinwar was also prevalent amongst a number of the new opium cultivators
interviewed in Laghman. Those that had not worked themselves on poppy cultivation indicated
that they had contact to Shinwar through family connections.
It was noticeable that all respondents cultivating opium in Laghman and Logar for the first time
in 1998 were owner cultivators.
2/ The UNOPS funded Baseline Survey for Azro conducted by ACBAR in December 1997
estimated that 29 jeribs of opium poppy was cultivated in the district in the 1997-98 growing
season.
3/ One jerib is equivalent to one-fifth of one hectare.
7. The role of itinerant poppy harvesters in expansion
7.1 The skilled nature of harvesting
l
However, it is worth recognising that the labour costs incurred during opium poppy cultivation
may provide externalities for future agricultural activities. One respondent who had planted six
jeribs of opium poppy in 1997 had doubled his cultivation in 1998. He suggested that the
primary reason for this increase in the amount of land dedicated to opium was the prevalence of
weeds on this land. This has been a common claim in other areas, indicating that the labour
intensive nature of poppy cultivation with its thinning requirements provides an opportunity to
clean the land of weeds at the same time.
Moreover, key informants suggest that the unsuitability of weeding land when wheat is grown
upon it due to the density of its cultivation, means that weeding is not undertaken on an annual
basis. Within this context the cultivation of opium poppy is perhaps an investment in the future
productivity of the land and its cultivation should not be considered simply a function of its
profitability on an annual basis but the profitability of the land over a longer period of crop
rotation.7/
7.5. Perceptions of profit
None of the respondents who had planted opium poppy in 1997 or 1998 indicated a desire to stop
opium cultivation. Most argued that they would continue its cultivation as long as it was
?profitable'. In discussions regarding the calculation of profit, respondents indicated that they did
not include household labour in the assessment of total costs. Seed, fertiliser, rented farmpower
and hired labour were included but no cost was attributed to family labour. Providing alternative
income earning opportunities for family members, including women, might increase the
opportunity cost households associate with opium cultivation and thereby reduce its perceived
profitability.
7.6. The threat of expansion within the area
Most importantly first time growers in all three districts indicated that neighbouring households
were expressing a particular interest in the progress of their opium crop. It was also noted by
respondents that their neighbours were in a lower socio-economic position than themselves due
to fewer remittances from temporary or permanent migrants within the family. It was suggested
by respondents that the prevalence of under-employed members within the neighbouring
households may prompt more intensive opium poppy cultivation during the next sowing season.
4/ Itinerant harvesters in Qarghayi indicated that they expected a yield of approximately 22 Kg
per jerib this year compared with 14 Kg per jerib in 1997 due to the increased size of the opium
capsules.
5/ This Study will represent Strategic Study 6 in the series.
6/ At the time of fieldwork there were approximately 33,000 Afghanis to one US Dollar in the
eastern region.
7/ Strategic Study 5: Access Labour: The Dynamics of the labour market for opium poppy in
Afghanistan will undertake more in-depth analysis of the issues discussed in this section during
the next opium poppy season.
8. The role of traders in expansion
In the villages where opium poppy was being cultivated for the first year only one respondent
indicated that he had been approached by traders to grow opium poppy. Opium seeds had been
provided by the trader and the farmer was informed that the trader would return to purchase the
final crop. However, the owner of the land had also worked as a labourer in Khogiani during the
previous year's opium poppy harvest and had developed links with itinerant harvesters that
would assist during the coming harvest.
In those villages where opium had been produced for the first time in 1997, traders had
approached them in 1998 to offer an advance. Traders had not approached them in the previous
years. These villages were mainly in the southern areas of Qarghayi district. One respondent had
taken an advance to pay for the labour he required to thin and weed his opium poppy. The other
two respondents had declined the advance due to the low price for opium being offered.
Upon inquiring where the final opium would be sold all respondents expressed the view that
traders would visit their area once they had heard opium was being produced there. All the
respondents indicated that they would sell the opium themselves to dealers in core producing
areas should traders not appear. In Azro farmers suggested they would travel to Hisarak or
Jalalabad to sell their opium. In Qarghayi and Mehterlam, Jalalabad and Ghani Khel were given
as possible locations for selling their opium.
9. The role of reverse conditionality in expansion
None of the respondents interviewed in Logar or Laghman reported having any knowledge of
UNDCP's alternative development activities in Shinwar. This may indicate that new opium
poppy cultivation in Logar and Laghman is not a function of farmers desire to attract
development assistance from UNDCP or other development donors.
10. The impact of the ban on new areas of opium poppy cultivation
None of the farmers interviewed in Logar or Laghman indicated that they had any knowledge of
a ban on new areas of opium poppy cultivation. Some respondents in Laghman suggested that
the district administrator, the woliswol, had given them sanction to cultivate opium poppy in
1997 but had not made any comment in 1998. The woliswol's silence was subsequently
interpreted as implicit consent by the farmers to cultivate in 1998. Indeed, from the woliswol's
office in Qarghayi it was possible to see poppy on three sides, the furthest field being a distance
of only 400 meters.
Many respondents questioned the validity of a ban on opium poppy cultivation in all those
districts that had not produced poppy in previous years, suggesting that such an approach lacked
credibility given the higher levels of production in other districts.
11. Preliminary Findings

In its initial year of cultivation in both Laghman and Logar, opium poppy would
appear to be undertaken by owner-cultivators. Key informants and respondents
indicated that opium poppy is often cultivated on an experimental basis by one or two
households in a village. In Laghman there is significant evidence of households
intercropping poppy during its initial year of cultivation. It is possible that this strategy is
adopted to test the market for opium and the suitability of soils and climate, whilst
minimising the risks associated with crop and market failure. These small plots of opium
would seem to provoke the interest of neighbouring households much like any
agricultural demonstration plot, raising the threat of expansion in subsequent years.

Fieldwork would suggest that the interdependent nature of labour markets and
commercial trade between districts, combined with cross district ethnic and family
links, has led to a high degree of exposure opium cultivation in both Laghman and
Logar. In particular a number of respondents had family members who worked as
itinerant opium poppy harvesters in neighbouring districts during periods of agricultural
underemployment.

The expansion of opium poppy to new areas of cultivation would appear to be
facilitated by itinerant poppy harvesters. Demographic pressures and the absence of
off-farm income opportunities have led to growing seasonal agricultural
underemployment. The prevalence of poppy in the districts of Nangarhar and the labour
intensive nature of the poppy harvest would seem to have provided significant
employment opportunities for migrant labourers from both within Nangarhar and
neighbouring provinces. For those migrants who are willing to travel between climatic
zones there is the opportunity of securing two months employment harvesting opium
poppy. The interdependence of the labour market between these different climatic zones
would suggest that any strategy aimed at reducing opium cultivation in one district would
also need to address on and off-farm income opportunities for labourers from
neighbouring districts. A failure to absorb the surplus in labour supply caused by a
reduction in opium poppy cultivation may provoke itinerant harvesters to search for
employment opportunities in neighbouring districts. Given the suitability of the
environmental conditions in most of Afghanistan and the particular skills these migrants
have to offer, relocation of opium poppy cultivation may be a possible response.

Respondents did not attribute an economic value to household labour in the
assessment of the total costs of agricultural inputs. Providing alternative income
earning opportunities for family members, including women, might increase the
opportunity cost households associate with opium cultivation and thereby reduce its
perceived profitability.

Initial fieldwork would suggest that traders do not appear to take a pro-active role
in the expansion of opium cultivation. In the initial year of cultivation only one
household was found to have been approached by traders either during the time of
planting or at harvest. In subsequent years it was reported that traders have offered
advances and visited households at the farmgate in order to purchase opium. This may
suggest that the farmgate trade in opium is not highly structured but a relatively free
market that follows market signals rather than creates them.

None of the respondents indicated that they were aware of a ban on opium poppy
cultivation in new areas. If true greater efforts will need be made promote the ban in all
areas currently under Taliban control using a variety of media, including electronic and
print and interpersonal communications.
ANNEX A: TERMS OF REFERENCE
Strategic Study1: An Analysis of the Process of Expansion of Opium Poppy Cultivation to
New Districts in Afghanistan
Objective: This study seeks to further UNDCP's understanding of the structural and
motivational factors that lie behind the expansion of drug crop production to new areas of
cultivation.
Summary: This study will seek to interview poppy cultivators in districts where poppy has been
recently introduced. Attempts will be made to contact the farmers cultivating poppy in these
areas in an effort to further UNDCP's understanding of the process of expansion. Semi-structured
interviews will focus on the role of tenancy arrangements, ethnic or kinship ties, and push-pull
factors in determining expansion. This work will be undertaken in subsequent years should new
areas come under poppy cultivation.
Phase I: Interview poppy cultivators in 1998 in areas where poppy has not been produced in
previous years

Initial Target Districts for 1998: Azro in Logar and Qarghayi and Meliterlarn in Laghman
province.

Subsequent Target Districts for 1998: Sarobi in Kabul and Tagab in Kapisa.
Phase II: Interviews will be undertaken in new districts and provinces should new areas come
under opium poppy cultivation in subsequent years.
Methodology: Due to the sensitive nature of the subject and the locations in which the
interviews are taking place emphasis should be on informal interviews. A questionnaire should
not be used. Instead the interviewer should focus on a number of key issues discussed in a
conversational manner. Notes should not be taken during the interview but should be written up
once the interview has finished and the interviewer has departed.
Emphasis should be given to conducting in-depth interviews over a wide geographical area to
assist in identifying generic issues that could be explored in other districts during subsequent
stages of the study. Priority should be given to interviewing first time cultivators of opium
poppy. These should be identified in consultation with key informants, including the surveyor for
the district. However, consideration should also be given to interviewing a smaller sample of
households who have cultivated opium poppy for two to three years in order to analyse the
process of expansion and consolidation of opium poppy in a particular village or location.
KEY ISSUES TO BE DISCUSSED
Identify whether: (A) landowner; or (B) sharecroppper?
If Landowner
(i)
What crops have they produced in previous years?
(ii) If produced poppy, in which year/s?
(iii) Why have they opted to produce poppy this year?
ie. What is different about this year from last year?
Agricultural conditions changed?- ie. access to water? Fragmentation of land?
Relative prices of crops? - ie Wheat v Poppy
Need for credit? What for?
Approached by individuals to grow poppy? - ie Traders or sharecroppers?
(iv) Where did they learn about poppy cultivation?
(v) Poppy requires a lot of labour, what area does the labour they require for harvesting come
from? Hired? Family?
(vi) Given that this area is a new poppy growing area where will they sell their opium?
(vii) Do they intend to grow poppy next year? What are the reasons for their answer?
(viii What do they include when calculating the profitability of opium poppy?
)
(ix) Have they heard that the Taliban have imposed a ban on new areas of cultivation?
(x) Have they heard about UNDCP's activities in other areas of Afghanistan?
If sharecropper
(i)
What is their province and district of origin?
(ii) What was the last district in which they sharecropped/rented land?
(iii) What prompted their relocation here?
(iv) What crops did they produce in previous area?
(v) If they produced poppy in previous area, for how many years?
(vi) Where did they learn about poppy cultivation?
(vii) Any family/ethnic links between area where previously sharecropped and current area?
(viii Poppy requires a lot of labour, what area does the labour they require for harvesting come
)
from? Hired? Family?
(ix) Given that this area is a new poppy growing area where will they sell their opium?
(x) Will they stay in the area or return to previous area?
(xi) Do they intend to grow poppy next year? What are the reasons for answer?
(xii) What do they include when calculating the profitability of opium poppy?
(xiii Have they heard that the Taliban have imposed a ban on new areas of cultivation?
)
(xiv Have they heard about UNDCP's activities in other areas of Afghanistan?
)