According to the World Bank, the combination of the pandemic and the aftermath of the coup hit Myanmar’s economy with an 18 percent contraction in 2021.
About 40 percent of the population was living in poverty in 2022, and Douglas said that financial hardship had forced many laborers to leave urban areas to work in opium cultivation in rural areas.
Benedict Hoffman, UNODC Myanmar country manager, said farmers needed external support to boost their livelihoods in order to grow other crops to compete with the opium economy.
“Opium cultivation is really about economics, and it cannot be solved by destroying crops which only increases vulnerabilities,” he said.
The report cited data from Myanmar’s Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control, which said 1,403 hectares of opium poppy had been eradicated by the end of last year – a 70 per cent increase from the previous year. decline.