KABUL: The Ministry of Interior Affairs has rejected the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)’s annual report on drug cultivation in the country, describing its findings as inconsistent with official data and field evidence.
According to a statement from the ministry, its deputy ministry for counter-narcotics cleared 26,000 hectares of land of drug crops in 2026.
The ministry said its assessments differ significantly from those of UNODC, adding that drug cultivation in Afghanistan has now fallen to nearly zero.
The statement called on UNODC to clearly disclose its data sources, the dates of satellite images used, the geographical coordinates of surveyed fields, its methodology for calculating cultivation and production, and the potential margins of error in its estimates.