Northern Afghanistan

Northern Afghanistan
ActiveRecorded as grown here since 2000
⛶
Location	Afghanistan
Coordinates	35.96, 66.66
Country	Afghanistan
Provinces/States	Balkh Province,Jowzjan Province,Faryab Province,Sar-e Pol Province,Samangan Province,Baghlan Province,Bamyan Province
Area	105,300 km²
Climate	Semi-arid
Growing history
Dated accessions	2006–2019
Conservation
Populations	none documented yet

Northern Afghanistan is a landrace cannabis growing region of Afghanistan, drawn on the seven provinces that make up the Northern region of the cannabis surveys of the Afghan Ministry of Counter Narcotics and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC): Baghlan, Balkh, Bamyan, Faryab, Jawzjan, Samangan and Sari Pul.^: 13 The surveys found cannabis grown in Baghlan, Balkh and Faryab in 2010 and 2011, and the 2010 survey calls the resin powder of the north Mazari or Balkhi garda.^: 13: 26 It holds the Balkh growing area, round Mazar-i-Sharif.

Extent

The surveys report cultivation by province and gather the provinces into six regions for their regional figures. This growing region takes the Northern region's provinces, Balkh, Jowzjan, Faryab, Sar-e Pol, Samangan, Baghlan and Bamyan, less their districts in the Hindu Kush: Baghlan's Andarab, Khost wa Fereng, Khinjan, Dih Salah and Puli Hisar, and Bamyan's Shibar.^: 13 The border encloses about 105,300 km².

In the surveys' tables the region's provinces do not all report cannabis. Jawzjan had cultivation in 2009 but none was found in 2010 or 2011; Sari Pul had none in those years; Samangan lay outside the area the surveys covered for cannabis, and Bamyan, where none was found in 2009 or 2010, was left outside it in 2011.^{: 12–13: 13}

Cannabis in the surveys

In the Northern region farmers sowed between mid-April and June in 2009; the 2010 survey gave March to April for sowing and November to December for the harvest, and the 2011 survey April to May and November to December.^{: 11, 20: 25: 37}

In 2009 the region grew mostly the variety called Mazari, which was also the most often named variety in the country.^: 15 The 2010 survey found Logari Shadani the most cultivated variety in the region, at 40 per cent of farmers' reports, while Mazari (Balkhi) led nationally.^: 19 In 2011 the region's farmers named Mazari (Balkhi) in 83 per cent of reports.^: 37

For their yield estimates the surveys grouped the Northern and North-eastern regions together, because the farmers there sieved a higher-quality first garda in smaller quantity than farmers elsewhere. The 2010 survey called it "Mazari or Balkhi garda", with more resin and without cannabis leaves mixed in.^: 26 The best first garda of the north, sieved in the traditional way, was called Jooshi or Balkhi garda; farmers reported that 25 kg of ordinary first garda gave only about 14 kg of it.^: 23 Hashish made from it by warming the powder over a flame and working it by hand was called Jooshi hashish, "also known as Balkhi hashish or Sherak-i-Mazar (milk of Mazar)".^: 25

Growing Areas

Growing Area	Province
Balkh	Balkh Province

Accessions

Accession ID	Name	Collected	Area	Province
ATA-AFG-BAL-0120060001	2006 ATA Mazar-i-Sharif IBL	2006	Balkh	Balkh Province
KHA-AFG-BAL-0120180001	Balkh Hash Plant 2018	2018	Balkh	Balkh Province
KHA-AFG-BAL-0120180002	Afghan Lemon 2018	2018	Balkh	Balkh Province
KHA-AFG-JOW-0120180001	Sheberghan Hash Plant 2018	2018		Jowzjan Province
RSC-AFG-BAL-0120060001	Mazar-i-Sharif General Population 2006	2006	Balkh	Balkh Province
RSC-AFG-BAL-0120180001	Balkhi General Population 2018	2018	Balkh	Balkh Province
RSC-AFG-BAL-0120190001	Balkhi General Population 2019	2019	Balkh	Balkh Province

Recent news

No news items are recorded for this growing region yet.

See also

• Afghanistan
• Hashish
• Hindu Kush
• North-eastern Afghanistan