Opium cultivation skyrockets as eradication effort collapses

Afghanistan saw a 10 percent jump in opium cultivation this year because of bumper harvests, collapsing eradication efforts due to growing insecurity and declining international aid to combat drugs, the United Nations said on Sunday.

Cultivation dropped last year due to drought but it has been on the rise in the past decade, fueling the Taliban insurgency and spurring a growing crisis of drug addiction despite US-led counternarcotics programs.

High levels of cultivation this year meant the estimated opium production soared 43 percent to 4,800 tons, a UN Office on Drugs and Crime report said, underscoring a "worrying reversal" in efforts to combat the scourge of drugs.