Research:2012-09-01/Report/afghanistan-survey-of-commercial-cannabis-cultivation-and-production-2011

ResearchReport1 September 2012

Afghanistan: Survey of Commercial Cannabis Cultivation and Production 2011

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Ministry of Counter Narcotics of Afghanistan

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

The Ministry of Counter Narcotics and UNODC survey of cannabis in Afghanistan for 2011, which follows those of 2009 and 2010 and counts only commercial mono-crop cultivation in the 23 provinces of its cannabis risk area. It estimates 12,000 ha (8,000 to 17,000 ha) and a potential production of 1,300 tonnes of resin powder, with commercial cultivation in 21 provinces against 17 in 2009, and 65,000 cannabis-growing households, 38 per cent more than in 2010. The report sets out how the resin is made: dried plants are threshed and sieved to a powder known locally as garda, graded first, second and third by the order of sieving, and traders press some of it into hashish, known locally as charas. It gives yields and farm-gate prices for each grade, compares cannabis with opium as a cash crop and reports farmers' reasons for growing, giving up or never growing cannabis. Small-scale cultivation in kitchen gardens is outside its estimates.

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CountryAfghanistan

More research from Afghanistan

• 13 Jul 2019Known Unknowns and Unknown Knowns: What we know about the cannabis and the Hashish trade in Afghanistan
• 1 Apr 2010Afghanistan Cannabis Survey 2009

Record created 9 November 2026maintained by landrace.wiki editorspage history

2012-09-01 2026-11-09 Afghanistan: Survey of Commercial Cannabis Cultivation and Production 2011 Report Cultivation United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Ministry of Counter Narcotics of Afghanistan United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime 2012 https://www.unodc.org/documents/crop-monitoring/Afghanistan/2011 Afghanistan Cannabis Survey Report w cover small.pdf The Ministry of Counter Narcotics and UNODC survey of cannabis in Afghanistan for 2011, which follows those of 2009 and 2010 and counts only commercial mono-crop cultivation in the 23 provinces of its cannabis risk area. It estimates 12,000 ha (8,000 to 17,000 ha) and a potential production of 1,300 tonnes of resin powder, with commercial cultivation in 21 provinces against 17 in 2009, and 65,000 cannabis-growing households, 38 per cent more than in 2010. The report sets out how the resin is made: dried plants are threshed and sieved to a powder known locally as garda, graded first, second and third by the order of sieving, and traders press some of it into hashish, known locally as charas. It gives yields and farm-gate prices for each grade, compares cannabis with opium as a cash crop and reports farmers' reasons for growing, giving up or never growing cannabis. Small-scale cultivation in kitchen gardens is outside its estimates. Afghanistan

Recorded terms

Terms from the report are recorded on the pages about them:

Term	Meaning	Place	Year	Where in the report	Recorded on
Balkhi garda	garda from the Northern and North-eastern regions, with more resin and no cannabis leaves	Afghanistan	2,011	p. 17: "Garda from the Northern and North-eastern regions (Mazari or Balkhi garda) contained more resin and no cannabis leaves"	Afghan hashish trade
Mazari garda	garda from the Northern and North-eastern regions, with more resin and no cannabis leaves	Afghanistan	2,011	p. 17: "Garda from the Northern and North-eastern regions (Mazari or Balkhi garda) contained more resin and no cannabis leaves"	Afghan hashish trade
charas	hashish, the consumable form of garda	Afghanistan	2,011	p. 36: "Further processing is required to turn garda into hashish (or "charas" as it is called in the local language)"	Afghan hashish trade
garda	a powdery substance with varying proportions of resin and other plant matter	Afghanistan	2,011	p. 36: "a powdery substance with varying proportions of resin and other plant matter, known locally as "garda""	Afghan hashish trade