📷 Image: Wikimedia Commons / Samuel Merwin (text)
Agriculture
2026-27 Opium Policy Permits Cultivation on Leased Land, Raises Morphine Output Requirement
✍️ Udaipur Kiran
🗓 25 Oct 2026, 09:45 AM
👁 13
The government’s 2026‑27 Opium Policy now allows farmers to grow poppies on leased plots and mandates a higher morphine output to qualify for cultivation licences.
The Ministry of Commerce and Industry released the draft of the Opium Policy for fiscal year 2026‑27, outlining key changes aimed at modernising the legal poppy sector.
Under the new rules, cultivators may lease agricultural land from private owners or government agencies, removing the earlier restriction that limited cultivation to owned plots. The amendment is intended to expand the area under legal cultivation and provide flexibility to smallholders.
A second major revision raises the minimum morphine output that a licence‑holder must achieve annually. The threshold has been increased from the previous level to ensure higher productivity and better compliance with international drug‑control obligations.
The policy also reiterates that licences will continue to be issued only after thorough background checks and that the additional output requirement will be monitored through the existing opium procurement system.
Industry observers say the changes could boost legal opium production, but they caution that enforcement agencies must guard against diversion into illicit channels.
Under the new rules, cultivators may lease agricultural land from private owners or government agencies, removing the earlier restriction that limited cultivation to owned plots. The amendment is intended to expand the area under legal cultivation and provide flexibility to smallholders.
A second major revision raises the minimum morphine output that a licence‑holder must achieve annually. The threshold has been increased from the previous level to ensure higher productivity and better compliance with international drug‑control obligations.
The policy also reiterates that licences will continue to be issued only after thorough background checks and that the additional output requirement will be monitored through the existing opium procurement system.
Industry observers say the changes could boost legal opium production, but they caution that enforcement agencies must guard against diversion into illicit channels.