Following a nationwide ban on poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, farmers in Helmand and Kandahar provinces have turned to growing basil as an alternative crop.

Local officials in these provinces say basil has been planted on more than 2,000 hectares of land this year, and that 3,000 tons will be harvested.

In Kandahar over 1,000 hectares has been used for basil.

“The cultivation of basil in Kandahar has increased this year. Most of the farmers have started growing basil. The reason is abundant water and good rains,” said Muhammad Hanif Haqmal, the spokesman of the Department of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock in Kandahar.

Basil cultivation has also increased in Helmand province. According to local officials, more than 1,400 acres of land has been used for basil, from which nearly 2,000 tons will be harvested.

Farmers, however, complain about the declining prices of basil. They say basil prices have decreased by 30 percent this year.

According to officials, last year the price of one kilogram of basil at markets was 500 afghanis, but this year one kilogram of basil sells for 280 afghanis to 300 afghanis.

Zalmai Rassoul, the ambassador of the former Afghan government in London, said Monday that the British authorities have given them notice to close the embassy.

He said the embassy will officially close on September 27.

Afghan embassy staff at numerous missions around the world continued to operate after the fall of the previous government.

While no country has officially recognized the Islamic Emirate government, a number of them in the Middle East and Asia have accepted Islamic Emirate diplomatic representation.

Embassies in the West however have mostly continued to operate.

However, at the end of July, the Islamic Emirate announced that it no longer recognizes Afghanistan’s diplomatic missions set up by the former, Western-backed government and that they will not honor passports, visas and other documents issued by diplomats associated with the previous administration.

Afghanistan’s seat at the United Nations is still held by the former Ashraf Ghani government, despite the IEA’s repeated requests for it to be handed over.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in July that documents issued by missions in London, Berlin, Belgium, Bonn, Switzerland, Austria, France, Italy, Greece, Poland, Australia, Sweden, Canada and Norway are no longer accepted

Rassoul meanwhile said on X that "the Afghan embassy in Britain is officially scheduled to be closed on September 27, 2024, based on the official request of the host country. This decision has been taken based on the needs of the authorities of the host country.”

Britain has also reportedly given the embassy staff 90 days to decide whether to leave the UK or stay in the country and claim asylum.

Iran meanwhile reacted to the announcement and said this move will bring European countries closer to Kabul.

Seyed Rasoul Mousavi, the director general of the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s West Asia department said in a post on X on Monday that the move “seems contradictory, but it is the path that Europe has started.”

In addition, Germany’s Foreign Ministry recently admitted that it has started official correspondence with the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The German government has also asked the Afghan embassy and consulate in Berlin and Bonn to establish relations with Kabul.

At least 48 people were killed on Sunday in a fuel tanker truck explosion following a collision with another vehicle in north-central Nigeria, the state's disaster management agency said.

The State Emergency Management Agency in north-central Niger state said the fuel truck collided with a truck carrying travellers and cattle. Several other vehicles were also caught up in the accident, it said.

The agency's spokesperson Hussaini Ibrahim put the death toll at 48 and officials were still trying to clear the scene of the incident.

Nigeria's state-owned firm NNPC Ltd last week hiked the price of gasoline by at least 39%, the second major increase in more than a year but shortages have continued, forcing motorists to queue for hours in the country's major cities and towns. – Reuters