Pink dope: how the opium poppy is harvested in Afghanistan

According to statistics, opium poppy production in Afghanistan has decreased by 19% since 2015. However, the recent upsurge in violence in the south of the country could only get worse after the end of the harvest campaign in May. Extremists are already deploying armed forces to protect their vast drug empire.

Afghan farmers collect poppy juice in a field in the Zari district of Kandahar province April 12, 2016.

An Afghan child carries a shovel on his shoulder through a poppy field in the Zari district of Kandahar province on April 11, 2016.

Afghan farmers harvest opium from a field in Gereshk, Helmand province April 8, 2016.

Farmers sit at the edge of a poppy field in the Zari district of Kandahar province on April 2, 2016.

Gathering opium in a field in Gereshk, Helmand province on April 8, 2016.

An Afghan security official walks past a burning pile of confiscated drugs in Jalalabad April 12, 2016. Then, according to the authorities, about 21 tons of opium, heroin, alcohol and hashish were burned.

This is what raw opium looks like. An Afghan farmer displays it while harvesting in a field in Kandahar province.