KABUL, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- Afghanistan's cotton harvest reached 159,000 tons in 2024, indicating a year-on-year growth of 30 percent, an official from the National Statistics and Information Authority (NSIA) said Monday.

"A total of 159,000 metric tons of cotton have been collected in the country, with western Helmand province producing 80 tons and northern Balkh province 34 tons," NSIA spokesperson Mohammad Halim Rafi posted on his X account.

Cotton cultivation over the past year covered 105,000 hectares of land in Afghanistan, said Rafi, adding that Helmand, Balkh, Takhar, Kandahar, Jawzjan and Nangarhar are among the provinces that contributed most to cotton production in the country.

Currently, cotton is being cultivated by Afghan farmers in 15 out of the country's 34 provinces, he said.

Since the Afghan caretaker government banned poppy cultivation in April 2022, farmers have begun replacing the illicit crop with cotton, saffron, rice, wheat and other legal plants throughout the poverty-stricken country.