Opium farming in Afghanistan has declined by 22 per cent this year as prices for the drug tumbled, causing farmers to switch to other crops, the UN has said according to Aljazeera.net.
About 800.000 fewer Afghans are involved in the illegal drugs trade compared to last year, according to an annual report from the world body, released on Wednesday.
The West, which has made wiping out the crop part of its eight-year battle against the Taliban in the country, is likely to welcome the findings.
But the decline, the second in the last two years, seems to be a result of simple economics, rather than law enforcement efforts.
Only four per cent of the crop was eradicated and two per cent of the harvested product was seized.
With Afghanistan still producing more opium than the world can consume, there is a risk that massive stockpiles of the drug could fund instability for years to come.
Opium now makes up just four per cent of Afghan GDP, compared to 7 per cent in 2008 and a record 27 per cent in 2002, a year after the Taliban were ousted.
