Poppies take root across Pakistan and Iran borderlands after Afghan crackdown

Farmers in Pakistan's poorest province are planting poppies instead of fruit, and satellite images show the crop spreading across the Afghan border into Iran. The Taliban's 2022 ban on illicit drugs pushed Afghan farmers onto land in Balochistan and Sistan-Baluchistan, where cultivation has grown sharply since.

British analysis firm Alcis assessed satellite imagery and interviewed local growers and found more than 9,000 hectares of poppy under cultivation in Balochistan alone. The province's Loralai and Killa Abdullah districts hold most of those fields. David Mansfield, a UK-based specialist on Afghanistan's illicit drug trade, published the findings in an August report for Alcis.

Abdul Qahar Wadan, a former National Assembly member from Killa Abdullah, said growing is rampant and alleged that senior military officials and pro-government power brokers take commissions from growers. Monawar Hussain, the district's chief administrative officer, said cultivation fell after an eradication campaign last year. Alcis imagery from 2026 shows no clear sign of that campaign's results.

One grower in Killa Abdullah, who asked not to be named, said payments go to local authorities through intermediaries. He said that when news coverage draws official attention, growers and their backers plant poppies on barren land so authorities can destroy the crop and announce the operation. Lala Jan Kakar, another Killa Abdullah resident, said insecurity, drought and flash floods have wrecked fruit farming. "It's not possible to resist it anymore. The demand for poppies is much more than fruits, and so is the income," Kakar said.

Afghan farmers from Kandahar and Helmand have crossed the border to lease land, bringing money and know-how. Kakar said they invest millions of Pakistani rupees in solar-powered wells and split profits with landowners. Poppies can be harvested twice a year, and many farmers doubled their planted area in 2026.

Iran shows a similar pattern, with Afghan growers working as tenants and sharecroppers, often through family ties. Cultivation has surfaced in Razavi Khorasan, Kermanshah, Lorestan and Fars, though Sistan-Baluchistan remains the main producing area. Imagery from 2026 depicts extensive poppy fields there, some with drip irrigation, a costly setup planted in late 2025. Iranian authorities, absorbed by the war against the United States and Israel since late February, have not destroyed the 2026 crop.

Cultivation has also risen inside Afghanistan despite the ban, concentrated in northeastern Badakhshan Province and several southwestern provinces. Mansfield estimated Badakhshan at around half of national output. Drought, debt and hardship pushed farmers in Badakhshan and Helmand to protest and defy the ban even under enforcement.

A Taliban directive now bars home searches for poppy or opium without a court order. Mansfield said that if farmers in the southwest read this as permission to plant beyond walled compounds, Afghanistan could see a dramatic rise in opium production in 2027. He also noted that armed groups compete for tax revenues from the drugs trade and from cross-border traffic in people, fuel, minerals and other goods.