The ban on opium production across Nangarhar: a risk too far?

Abstract

Risk is a reality that has to be managed by households in rural Afghanistan. Some communities are more likely than others to experience risks and at the same time are the least likely to adapt and recover from the adverse outcomes when they arise. In rural Nangarhar many of the communities most likely to experience natural risks, as well as risks resulting from human activity, are also those who have been the most reliant on opium production. The impact of a comprehensive opium ban across the province for the third consecutive year has hit those communities who are most vulnerable to repeated and concurrent risks the hardest. Where these risks are compounded by the economic costs of illness, injury or death, or other life events such as marriage, households are left increasingly destitute, creating the conditions that foster further economic and political instability.