Talk:Nangarhar
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Nangarhar treats the cannabis growing area of Nangarhar Province in eastern Afghanistan: what the UNODC and Ministry of Counter Narcotics cannabis surveys of 2009 to 2012 report for the province, its growing season, varieties, trade and prices, David Mansfield's fieldwork in its southern districts, the bans that interrupted the crop, and the seed line from the province. The province as an administrative unit is treated at Nangarhar Province, and the country's cannabis as a whole at Afghanistan.
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Discussion
Why the area is mapped
- The four cannabis surveys of the Afghan Ministry of Counter Narcotics and the UNODC (2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012) each report cannabis cultivation in Nangarhar: "yes" in table 2 of the 2009 survey, and "Yes" for 2009 to 2012 in table 1 of the 2012 survey. None of them gives an area for any one province.
- Two field studies name places inside the province. Mansfield (2011) reports maize grown together with cannabis in upper Achin from 2010 and households in the southern districts that grew cannabis in the summer of 2010 (pp. 10–11). Bradford and Mansfield (2019) name the Mahmand valley in Achin, Pirakhel and Wazir in Khogiani, and fields throughout Khogiani, Achin, Hisarak and Sherzad in 2018 (paras. 21, 25). The surveys photograph fields in Sherzad (2009, pp. 14, 57–58; 2011, p. 42) and name Hesarak and Sherzad as trading centres (2009, p. 35).
- The seed line names only the province. It supports the page only through the sources above.
- The growing status is Active: Bradford and Mansfield report fields in four districts in the summer of 2018. Islamic State Khorasan's destruction of the crop in Achin in 2015 and in Khogiani in 2017 was a ban, not an end; the same source reports the crop back after the group left.
How the border is drawn
- The map border is Nangarhar Province in OpenStreetMap (administrative relation 1674770, AF-NAN; about 7,370 km²), simplified. It is a proxy: the surveys report by province, so the province is the unit they support. The infobox gives the province's area, about 7,370 km², and names the unit in its terrain line.
- A narrower border on the four southern districts named by the field studies (Achin, Khogiani, Hisarak and Sherzad) was considered and not used. The surveys report the whole province; Bradford and Mansfield say the crop was spreading from the upper valleys into the lower parts of those districts and along the roads (para. 25); and no source read says that the rest of the province grew none.
- The border is not drawn from accession points; Jalalabad falls inside it.
Sources
- The surveys. All four reports were read in full on 18 October 2026, from the UNODC copies for 2009, 2010 and 2011 and from the ReliefWeb copy of the 2012 report. Page numbers in the article are the reports' printed numbers.
- Mansfield (2011), Between a Rock and a Hard Place (AREU), was read on 18 October 2026: the introduction, the methodology and the Nangarhar section, and the whole report for every mention of cannabis (there are two, both on Nangarhar). Its title page is dated October 2011 and its cover August 2011; the article gives October 2011.
- Bradford and Mansfield (2019). Read in full at journals.openedition.org/echogeo/17626; cited by paragraph number.
Where the sources disagree
- Prices in 2009. Bradford and Mansfield (para. 24), citing an unpublished 2009 report by Mansfield, say that prices in Balkh in 2009 were twice those in Nangarhar. The 2009 survey reports that prices in both provinces rose sharply in the second half of that year (p. 37). The two are not directly comparable and the article gives the survey only for 2009.
- Returns per hectare. Bradford and Mansfield give Nangarhar's 2015 net return as US$1,352 a jerib and its hectare equivalent as "US$ 46,790" (para. 23). At five jeribs to the hectare, the ratio they use for Balkh in the same paragraph, the equivalent would be about US$6,760. The article gives the per-jerib figure only.
- Spellings. The surveys write both Hisarak and Hesarak; Bradford and Mansfield write Hisrak; Mansfield (2011) uses all three. The article links Hisarak District. Mansfield writes Khogiani; the 2009 maps write Khugyani. Bradford and Mansfield write Gul Aga Sherzai, Mansfield (2011) Gul Aga Shirzai; the article uses Gul Agha Sherzai.
- Mahmand valley. Both Mansfield texts write Mahmand; the 2009 survey's maps name a separate district, Mohmand Dara. The valley is in Achin and is left unlinked.
Sources not used
- Pajhwok Afghan News (18 January 2023) reports police destroying poppy, cannabis and other plants on 1,500 acres in Nangarhar; only the opening paragraphs are free to read, so it is not cited.
- Mansfield (2014), From Bad They Made It Worse, Mansfield (2016), The Devil is in the Detail, and Mansfield and Fishstein (2016), which Bradford and Mansfield cite for Nangarhar, could not be opened: the copies found sit behind a browser check.