Taliban’s poppy ban falters as Afghan farmers say they can’t feed their children

Mohammad Dawood, a 28-year-old farmer who used to harvest poppy before the ban and says his children are malnourished, harvests cotton in a field in Balkh province, Afghanistan, on Sunday. | REUTERS

Reuters

Oct 29, 2026

BABA YUSUF, Afghanistan – Carpets still hang on the walls of Mohammad Dawood’s home in a northern Afghanistan village, and ornate mirrors still catch the light, relics of the years when a single poppy harvest could carry his family through the year.

But the 28-year-old says he now spends his days bent over cotton and wheat in fields that barely provide a living.

“We were doing well,” he said in an interview in his home in the Baba Yusuf village of Balkh province. “Now, my children are malnourished.”

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