KABUL - Independent Directorate of Local Governance (IDLG) officials on Tuesday said forced eradication of poppies was prompting support to the Taliban among growers.
"The use of force to eradicate the crop cannot resolve the problem of opium production. A better way to fight the menace is arranging alternatives for farmers," IDLG Director General Abdul Khaliq Farahi told a conference, attended by 18 governors.
NATO-led ISAF representatives, British and American officials also participated in the two-day conference that began in Kabul on Tuesday.
Farahi suggested farmers should be provided with fertilizers, seeds and other agriculture inputs to help them increase their agriculture production.
He also called for a special budget to fight poppy cultivation, saying the governors could play an effective role in this regard.
The governors criticized a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) report, which says poppy production in Afghanistan, had increased.
"The UNODC report is far from reality and such reports can result in farmers' loss of confidence in government," Faryab Governor Abdul Haq Shafaq remarked.
Faryab remained poppy-free until 2010, but this year, 40 hectares of farmland was cultivated with the banned crop, he said.
Officials who prepared the UNODC report did not know the geographical situation of Afghanistan, Kunar Governor Fazlullah Wahidi said.
Governors of Kabul, Kandahar, Helmand, Herat, Baghlan, Badakhshan, Laghman, Kunar, Zabul, Badghis, Farah, Daikundi, Ghor, Faryab, Kapisa, Nimroz and Paktia are taking part in the conference.
On Monday, UNODC Executive Director Yuri Fedotov said although drug production in Afghanistan had decreased in 2010, it witnessed a seven percent increase in 2011 due to high demand in the world market.
According to Counternarcotics Minister Zarar Ahamd Muqbil, last year, 123,000 hectares of land was cultivated with poppies in Afghanistan, but the growth increased to 131,000 hectares in 2011.
Previously, income from poppies cultivated over one hectare of land was $4,900 (235,543 Afghanis), which rose to $10,700 this year, when 95 percent of the crop was grown in insecure provinces and districts, the minister said.
"If demand for opium increased, poppy cultivation will also increase," he warned, claiming the Taliban received $155 million annually in come from poppy cultivation.
On Nov. 23, Deputy Interior Minister of Counternarcotics Baz Mohammad Ahmadi said Afghan forces had captured more than 163 tons of drugs in Kandahar, Helmand, Ghor, Herat and Nangarhar provinces.
The seizure included 825 kilograms of heroin, 7.5 tons of opium, two tons of morphine, 1.5 tons of hashish, 152 tons of chemicals and 962 bottles of alcohol, Ahmadi said.