Jacob Townsend, 'Upcoming Changes To The Drug-Insurgency Nexus in Afghanistan', The Jamestown Foundation / Terrorism Monitor Volume 7 Issue, 23 January 2009

EXCERPT: "While there are many Taliban-controlled villages in Afghanistan that do not cultivate opium, there are few villages cultivating opium that are not under Taliban control. The concentration of opium production in a handful of southern provinces has placed Afghanistan's opium economy almost completely under insurgent control. Insurgent commanders benefit from taxation in kind at the farm-gate, from direct involvement in trafficking and sales and from protection money paid by traffickers to smooth exports. The concentration of production in the southern provinces has been driven by three factors. First, these provinces have a comparative advantage in agricultural productivity. Helmand, which produced 70 percent of Afghanistan's opium in 2008, has the largest share of the best farmland, with high opium yields per hectare. By contrast, low opium productivity discourages poppy cultivation in other hostile provinces, such as those in eastern Afghanistan. In a broader context, the ample supply of workers across Afghanistan keeps costs relatively low for the labor-intensive opium harvest."

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See also:
'US waiting for Afghanistan to take lead on narcotics', Baltimore Sun, 23 January 2009
'Drug wars', The New Republic, 23 January 2009
'Following the Afghan drug trail', The American Spectator, 23 January 2009
'Poppy fields turn to saffron', The Washington Times, 22 January 2009
'Afghans benefit from poppy-free Panjshir province', Australia.To, 22 January 2009

Related posts:
'Pomegranates usurp Afghan poppies', 13 January 2009
'Obstacle in bid to curb Afghan trade in narcotics', 23 December 2008
'Counter-narcotics in Afghanistan: The failure of success?', 15 December 2008
'Drugs finance Taliban war machine, says UN', 27 November 2008
'The Taliban's opium war', 6 July 2007