The Spread of Opium Poppy Cultivation in Balkh

This case study builds on preliminary research undertaken in March 2006 and published as Water Management, Livestock and the Opium Economy: Opium Poppy Cultivation in Kunduz and Balkh in June 2006. It centres on Balkh Province, its structures of ethnicity and settlement, actors associated with the control and regulation of the opium trade, and the interplay between the formal and informal institutions within the province. It shows that the recent decline in opium poppy area in Balkh is not likely to be durable.