DHAKA: Opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan reached a record high in 2014, a United Nations report revealed Wednesday, highlighting the failure of the multi-billion-dollar US-led campaign to crack down on the lucrative crop.

The total area under cultivation was about 224,000 hectares in 2014, a seven per cent increase on last year, according to the Afghanistan Opium Survey released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Just 74,000 hectares was being used to grow poppies in 2002, a year after the Taliban regime was toppled.

Despite a decade of costly US and international counter-narcotics programmes, poppy farming has boomed in the south and west regions, which include the most volatile parts of the country where the Taliban insurgency is strongest, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 1632 HRS, NOV 12, 2014