Pubdate: Wed, 11 Sep 2013 Source: Guardian, The (UK) Copyright: 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited Contact: http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/175 Author: Emma Graham-Harrison BUMPER CANNABIS CROP DESPITE CUT IN PLANTING The amount of farmland in Afghanistan planted with cannabis fell by nearly a fifth last year after one province carried out a strictly enforced drug eradication campaign. However, a bumper crop showed production had risen compared with 2011, said the UN. Officials in Uruzgan province, which borders Kandahar and Helmand, largely stamped out cultivation of the drug, acting out of concern that it was financing the Taliban. In 2011 there were more than 1,000 hectares (2,471 acres) of the crop there, but last year less than 100 ha. But planting in most other areas remained largely steady, with just over half of commercial production concentrated in the south of the country. Overall Afghanistan produced 1,400 tonnes of commercial cannabis resin in 2012, the UN Cannabis Survey Report report estimated. Last year the UN said Afghanistan's importance as a source of resin for world markets could be growing as more farmers grew the crop, amid pressure to cease poppy cultivation. But Jean-Luc Lemahieu, of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said farmers balanced food security and family needs yearly and did not rely just on one crop. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom