Poppy Fields Spread Across Afghan Borders as Taliban Ban Drives Cultivation Into Pakistan and Iran

Cultivation has moved across Afghanistan's borders since the Taliban restricted illicit narcotics in 2022.

David Mansfield, a UK-based expert on Afghanistan's illicit drug trade, said satellite analysis by the British firm Alcis identified more than 9,000 hectares of poppy in Pakistan's Balochistan province, with most of it in the districts of Loralai and Killa Abdullah. Mansfield, who wrote an August report for Alcis, said the Taliban ban combined with instability across the tri-border region has created conditions for widespread cultivation in Balochistan and parts of Iran. He said the remote borderlands of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran have become "a global center for opium production."

The timeline of the shift runs through several stages. Afghanistan produced the world's largest opium supply for years before the Taliban imposed a broad ban on illicit narcotics in 2022. Cultivation then fell inside Afghanistan and moved outward. Satellite imagery and farmer interviews now point to rising poppy acreage in Balochistan and Iran's Sistan-Baluchistan province, both of which border Afghanistan. Alcis imagery from 2026 shows no clear evidence of eradication in Balochistan, despite claims by Monawar Hussain, the district's chief administrative officer, that planting declined after a campaign last year. Abdul Qahar Wadan, a former National Assembly member from Killa Abdullah, said cultivation is rampant there.

Farmers describe the economics plainly. Lala Jan Kakar, a Killa Abdullah resident, said insecurity, drought and flash floods have hit traditional fruit growing, and he said poppies pay more. "It's not possible to resist it anymore. The demand for poppies is much more than fruits, and so is the income," he said. Kakar added that Afghan growers bring money and skill across the border from Kandahar and Helmand to lease land, invest millions of Pakistani rupees in solar-powered wells, and share profits with landowners. Poppies can be harvested twice a year, and many farmers doubled their cultivated area in 2026.

In Iran, Afghan farmers work as tenants and sharecroppers. Cultivation has been reported in Razavi Khorasan, Kermanshah, Lorestan and Fars, but Sistan-Baluchistan remains the main producing area. Satellite imagery from 2026 shows extensive poppy fields there, some with drip irrigation, which Mansfield said indicates growers who planted in late 2025 expected little risk of eradication. He described a shift "from mixed farming to large-scale poppy monoculture." Iranian authorities have been occupied with the war against the United States and Israel since late February and have not destroyed the 2026 crop.

Cultivation continues inside Afghanistan as well. Badakhshan province in the northeast accounts for roughly half of national output, and southwest provinces also produce. Mansfield said poppy cultivation remained widespread across Badakhshan's rainfed and irrigated land in 2026, while southwestern cultivation almost doubled between 2025 and 2026, though it stayed limited and hidden inside wheat fields and behind compound walls. A Taliban directive bars home searches for poppy or opium without a court order.

Mansfield said a Taliban directive barring home searches for poppy or opium without a court order carries a risk. "But there is a clear risk: Growing numbers of farmers in the southwest may read the concession as a signal that the authorities will tolerate cultivation beyond walled compounds," he said. "If so, Afghanistan could see a dramatic rise in opium production in 2027."

The next phase is set for 2027. Mansfield said many farmers doubled their cultivated area in 2026, which he called a sign that higher cultivation should be expected next year. Experts also caution that poppy acreage could climb in 2027, which would affect heroin supply on international markets, income for armed groups, and violence in the region. Mansfield said armed groups "compete for tax revenues from the drugs trade and other cross-border activities, including people smuggling and trade in fuel, minerals and other goods."

Pakistan's Interior Ministry and the Balochistan provincial government did not respond to requests for comment. Islamabad denies reports of opium cultivation and says any poppy crops found have been destroyed. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates that opium production in Pakistan remains marginal, though the agency said scarce regional data and sharp rises in eradication figures point toward "a certain degree of spillover effects."