Fighting hunger and heroin on the Afghan-Tajik border

Daniel Gerstle 11/11/04

A EurasiaNet Commentary

To tackle the booming opiate trade along the Afghan-Tajik border, international organizations should strive to address the issue of hunger. Cure hunger, development experts say, and the number of narcotics traffickers will begin to dwindle. Weaken the supply chain, and heroin sales in both Russia and the West will begin to dry up.

The Panj River Valley, a mountainous, 700-mile stretch of arid land between eastern Afghanistan and Tajikistan, is a pivotal area in the anti-trafficking struggle. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates that three-quarters of the world's opium products – some 3,600 metric tons of opium and heroin – originate in Afghanistan, a significant portion of it coming out of the remote mountainous areas along the frontier with Tajikistan.

Growing and trafficking in opiates has emerged as essential for economic survival of many farmers in this isolated, poverty-stricken region. Nearly one-third of respondents in the UNODC's 2003-2004 Afghanistan Farmers' Intentions Survey cited poverty as their motivation for involvement in the narcotics trade. Thirty-three percent suggested they would respect Afghanistan's poppy ban if provided adequate economic assistance, or better market opportunities.

So far, though, economic assistance meant to offer alternatives to poppy crops has made little impact on the lives of the Panj River Valley's 2 million residents. Illicit products offer far greater returns. Wheat, a regional staple, fetched $222 per hectare in 2003, while poppy production yielded up to $12,700 per hectare, or $250 per kilogram of raw opium.

British media reported that the UNODC 2004 annual report on Afghanistan will show a 64 percent increase in the country's poppy harvest, placing Afghanistan ahead of Colombia as the world's top narcotics producer. Publication of the report, originally scheduled for release on November 4, has since been canceled for unspecified reasons. The UNODC did not respond to requests for additional information.

Aware of the threat, President Hamid Karzai has publicly called for a "jihad" against opiates and pledged to wipe out a quarter of the country's poppy crop in 2004. While supporting his zeal, international observers have quietly expressed doubts that Karzai possesses the resources to realize this target.

In the meantime, to fight the narcotics trade, Tajikistan must concentrate on its own development needs. With worker salaries averaging just $10 per month, the financial attraction of narcotics trafficking or production is clear. Chronic malnutrition affects more than one-third of the country's children and acute malnutrition, a condition that facilitates life-threatening diseases, touches nearly 5 percent.

Local economists argue that one way to reduce drug trafficking is to stimulate legal trade between Tajikistan and Afghanistan. Afghans could profit from Tajikistan's hydroelectric power, and Tajiks could benefit from access via Afghanistan to the growing markets of South Asia, noted Saifuddin Saihoon, chairperson of the economics department at Kabul University.

Boosting trade, though, requires a far-reaching effort to improve the transport infrastructure. At present, the bridge and road network in the Panj region is woefully inadequate. In an effort to address existing shortcomings, the Aga Khan Foundation and US government in 2003 began construction on five new bridges and border crossings between Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Iran has also announced plans for financing of a $38 million tunnel to connect northern and southern Tajikistan. Despite such measures, local observers say much more foreign investment needs to occur before the infrastructure can accommodate the grand plans for regional trade.

Editor's Note: Daniel J Gerstle was a 2004 Summer Research Fellow for Columbia University's Center for International Conflict Resolution covering the Caucasus and Central Asia.

Posted November 11, 2004 © Eurasianet