The head of the UN Office for Drugs and Crime has announced that the area of land under opium cultivation has decreased for the first time since the Taliban were overthrown four years ago.
The area under cultivation for opium dropped 21% over the past year.
Antonio Maria Costa said this is a major accomplishment
However, Mr Costa said that because of a bumper harvest the amount of opium produced from poppies grown in Afghanistan had remained roughly the same as last year.
He said this was because of favourable weather conditions.
