The economic crisis and increased opium prices have driven poor farmers in Southeast Asia back to the cultivation of poppies, resulting in a 22 percent increase in the number of acres committed to poppy cultivation in the region, according to a U.N. report.
On Monday, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) published its annual Southeast Asian Opium Survey.
The report shows the No. 2 provider of opium in the world, Burma (also called Myanmar), increased its estimated 2010 production by 76 percent to 640 tons, compared to last year. Afghanistan produces about four times as much.
Since 1998, the area committed to poppy cultivation in Burma has dropped from 340,800 acres to 53,100 acres in 2006. The report shows, however, an increase in the last four years.
In 2010, the total amount of poppy fields covers 94,100 acres or 5.6 percent of the whole country. Farmers in the other countries in the report, Laos and Thailand, together grow poppies on 8,127 acres.
The decrease in opium production since 1998 can be attributed to programs that facilitate farmers’ growing alternative crops in a profitable way. According to UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov, the economic crisis and an increase in opium price, however, have driven farmers back to the cultivation of poppies.
“Regrettably, while progress has been made in reducing poppy fields over the past decade, the recent global economic crisis appears to have exacerbated the situation for poor communities and tempted many to enter the drug market,” Fedotov said in a UNODC news release.
“The rising price of opium over the last few years has also been instrumental in making opium cultivation an attractive option for many,” Fedotov said.
The report shows a price increase of over 250 percent since 2006 for Thailand. Poppies grown in Burma are sold for about one-fifth of the Thailand price and have been relatively stable in the last four years.
The higher prices and increase in production revenue resulted in a $100 million increase in the Southeast Asian region in 2010 and reached a total of $219 million.
In the report, Fedotov encourages the involved countries to reverse the trend by “improving basic security (including food security).” A way of securing sustainable livelihoods in a poppy-free region is to keep undertaking “alternative development efforts,” he concluded in his opening comment in the report.
