Fighting usually ebbs during the harvest season, illustrating how the Taliban are deeply entwined in the $3 billion opium trade, believed to be the mainstay of their insurgency against the government.

MAYWAND, Afghanistan -- Afghan farmers have begun harvesting this year's opium crop, exposing the limits of a U.S.-sponsored crackdown on the world's largest narcotics industry despite claims ...

Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban on Sunday announced a ban on harvesting poppies, even as farmers in some parts of the country began extracting the opium from the plant that is needed for making ...

Day laborers can earn upwards of $300 a month harvesting opium from the poppies. Villagers often rely on the promise of the upcoming poppy harvest to borrow money for staples such as flour, sugar ...

Today, he has asked Raziq to convene a shura, or meeting, with the village elders. En route to the gathering, Shervington encounters another farmer tending to his opium harvest.

Bountiful Afghan Opium Harvest Yields Profits for the Taliban The crowded poppy fields in Helmand Province, overflowing with both opium bulbs and laborers, amounted to an insurgent recruiter’s ...

In 2021, 177,000 hectares (438,000 acres) were planted with poppies, yielding enough opium to produce up to 650 tons of heroin, according to estimates by the U.N.'s Office on Drugs and Crime.

Afghan farmers harvest poppy in Nad Ali district, Helmand province, Afghanistan, Friday, April 1, 2022. Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban have announced a ban on poppy production, even as farmers ...