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The present article evaluates farmer and community characteristics that promote resilience to opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan. In general, resilience-building can be associated with measures to manage changes in contexts of long-lasting or recurring crisis, as opposed to measures aimed at controlling changes in stable systems.
Afghanistan is a country in a state of constant, protracted crisis. As expected, the evidence gathered in the field suggests that farmers need sources of income that are not only profitable but also sustainable over time in order to keep them from cultivating opium poppy. The evidence also suggests that improvements in public services and governability are needed to turn opium poppy-growing communities into opium poppy-free communities and to keep communities free from opium poppy for longer periods of time. Other important factors that increase resilience include improvements in the adaptive capabilities of farmers, such as performing a large number of incomegenerating activities, cultivating a large number of crops and receiving awarenessraising information aimed at reducing opium poppy cultivation. Conversely, focusing on one-sided solutions, such as the sole provision of wheat as a crop substitute for opium poppy, or off-farm jobs, decreases resilience to opium poppy cultivation. Therefore, designers of evidence-based interventions need to invest time in understanding local conditions before designing such interventions, and fully consider and integrate farmer livelihood strategies, vulnerabilities and uncertainty with broad-based rural development in order to achieve sustainable reductions in opium poppy cultivation.
The price of not doing so is high, as poorly designed interventions generate perverse incentives that are likely to lead to overall increases in opium poppy cultivation.
