The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is developing an artificial intelligence (AI) driven application that would monitor the crops used for illicit opium cultivation in Afghanistan, according to a statement released on Monday by Cranfield University in the United Kingdom. The university claims that their AI would analyse satellite data to determine the locations of poppies being grown for drug manufacture.
The Taliban prohibited the growing of opium poppy and all other narcotics in April 2022, a year after they gained control of the country.
This comes months after a UN agency assessment revealed that opium cultivation in Afghanistan had increased by 32%. At least 80 per cent of all illicit opium is produced in Kabul, said the UNODC and this increase in cultivation in 2022 made the crop the third largest under cultivation since monitoring began.
‘This is a hugely significant project to be involved with. In terms of Afghanistan, we’re talking about opium production on a grand scale, something like the combined size of 500,000 rugby pitches, so a huge amount of cultivation,’ said Dr Daniel Simms, a professor in Remote Sensing at Cranfield University.
He also noted how automating the monitoring process would save many hours. The partnership between the UN and the university will last until July 2023.
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