BANGKOK – Opium poppy production in Myanmar ramped up dramatically following the 2021 military coup, the UN’s drugs office said Thursday, as political and economic turmoil drove farmers to cultivate the crop.The country’s economy has been paralysed following the military power grab in February 2021 and subsequent fighting between the junta and anti-coup rebels.The area of land used for opium poppy cultivation expanded by a third to just over 40,000 hectares in 2021-22 — the first full growing season since the coup — according to a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report released Thursday.

Fields of purple opium poppy stretch across the pastures and peaks of mountainous eastern Myanmar, with many farmers reluctant to give up the profitable cash crop in spite of incentives offered. Myanmar is the second biggest source of opium in the world after Afghanistan, with Shan state its main production hub. (Photo by Ye Aung THU / AFP)BANGKOK – Opium poppy production in Myanmar ramped up dramatically following the 2021 military coup, the UN’s drugs office said Thursday, as political and economic turmoil drove farmers to cultivate the crop. The country’s economy has been paralysed following the military power grab in February 2021 and subsequent fighting between the junta and anti-coup rebels. […]

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