Friday, June 4, 2010
Afghanistan
Afghanistan is with 50% of its population are living on approximately less than USD $1 per day, is one of the most impoverished countries in the world (Department for International Development, 2010). In addition, the country is also far off from achieving all of its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) (Bennett, Alexander, Saltmarshe, Phillipson, & Marsden, 2009).
Afghanistan is a major producer of the opium; it produces 87% of the world’s supply of opium. The production of opium also makes up a large portion of the country’s GDP, rendering the country’s economy dependent on the production of opium (Asian Development Bank, 2005; Department for International Development, 2010). However, despite its contribution to the economy of Afghanistan, the production of opium creates a myriad of social problems which creates challenges to the countries development, such as:
- · Organized Crime
- · Insecurity
- · Corruption
- · Addiction
- · HIV/AIDS (Asian Development Bank, 2005, p. para. 12)
Recommendation
One of the reasons the farmers in Afghanistan cultivates opium is due to the high economic returns as compared to other cash crops (Asian Development Bank, 2005). As such, one of the ways in which to cut-down and subsequently, eliminate opium production is to encourage farmers to stop producing opium by introducing more efficient ways of cultivating other cash crops that would provide them with similar economic returns. For example, farmers could be introduced to more effective and efficient agricultural practices such as crop rotation, so that they could have multiple harvests of different crops through the year while at the same time not sacrificing the fertility of the crop land.
The reduction and gradual shift away from the cultivation of opium may help path the way on which the social ills listed above could be tackled and resolve.
References
Asian Development Bank. (2005, December). Development challenges. Retrieved June 4, 2010, from Asian Development Bank: http://www.adb.org/Documents/Periodicals/ADB_Review/2005/vol37-6/dev-challenges.asp
Bennett, J., Alexander, J., Saltmarshe, D., Phillipson, R., & Marsden, P. (2009, May). Evaluation of DFID's country programmes: Afghanistan 2002-2007. Retrieved June 4, 2010, from Department fo International Development: ww.dfid.gov.uk/Documents/publications1/evaluation/afghan-eval-summary.pdf
Department for International Development. (2010). Afganistan. Retrieved Jun 4, 2010, from DFID: Department for Internation Development: http://www.dfid.gov.uk/Where-we-work/Asia-South/Afghanistan/
By Zhi Qiang
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