Opium Poppy and Informal Credit

This issues paper examines the link between opium poppy cultivation and informal credit systems in Afghanistan. The report challenges  assumptions that opium poppy cultivation results in particularly harmful debt and high-cost credit. It encourages deeper scrutiny into opium’s role in and effect on rural households and communities, with implications for opium poppy eradication programmes, rural livelihoods, and the availability of and need for different types of credit.