Afghanistan's opium harvests have jumped to a new high, increasing 34% from the previous year, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said in its 2007 Annual Opium Survey (PDF). Afghanistan has effectively become the exclusive provider of the world's opium, accounting for 93% of the global opiates market.

U.S. officials say the opium trade is helping fund the Taliban insurgency, which is true. But it has also become an essential cash crop for average farmers in the absence of viable alternatives. Money quote from a BBC profile of the Afghan opium market:

Haji Deen Gul - who is selling 20kg of opium - is critical of the Afghan government and the international community for targeting the farmers. Instead he wants the traffickers to be targeted.

"They should target the ones who are selling the heroin to Western countries. I sell my opium to feed my family and from my heroin they can even make medicine. When I have water and roads provided to me, I will stop growing poppies."