Overview
- UNODC estimates opium poppy fields shrank to about 10,200 hectares in 2025, down from 12,800 hectares in 2024 and far below pre-ban levels.
- Estimated harvest fell roughly 32% to 296 tonnes, even as the average price for dry opium declined 27% to about $570 per kilogram.
- Farmer revenues dropped about 48% to roughly $134 million, with many growers moving to cereals or leaving land fallow due to drought and low rainfall.
- Criminal networks increasingly rely on synthetics, with methamphetamine driving a reported 50% rise in regional seizures and more trafficking arrests.
- The UN urges broader counternarcotics efforts that target synthetic manufacture and trafficking and fund alternative livelihoods and demand reduction.