Report urges Afghan farmer boost

By David Loyn
BBC International Development correspondent

International pressure has done little to halt Afghan opium production

A new report on Afghanistan's drugs trade urges more investment to provide alternative livelihoods for farmers.

The report says it is very hard to make any progress in Helmand Province, where most opium poppies are grown, because of the scale of the fighting.

It says opium is Afghanistan's leading economic activity, equivalent to one-third of the non-drug economy.

The report was commissioned jointly by the World Bank and the UK Department for International Development.

Britain plays the lead role in coordinating counter narcotics policy in Afghanistan and six years on the failure in this area makes for grim reading.

The report says there is a need for far more consistency of approach, persistence in the face of setbacks and massive coordinated and sustained investment. But this is a daunting challenge for the government, as well as its donor partners.

There have been some successes - half as many provinces grow opium poppies this year as last - but the report says there are ominous signs that the drugs business is increasingly linked to insecurity.

That makes it hard to run effective development programmes across about a third of the Afghan countryside.

It says there should be no illusions about the prospect for success in Helmand, where British troops are fighting the most intense conflict in the country.

The report says that the window for development initiatives to counter poppy growing in Helmand is very narrow.