Poppy seeds and fertilizer also cost money, but start-up farmers are willing to approach traffickers, asking to borrow money with a promise to repay with kilos of opium at harvest time. They know opium is much more promising than wheat. As eradication efforts ramp up, however, farmers who don't have enough to bribe officials end up watching their lucrative crop ripped up and flattened. Gone with it is their hope for a better future -- and, sometimes, their daughters.

"This is a business deal, essentially," Nawa said. "This has become a more common practice because of the opium trade, because this society has disintegrated and family is being interrupted."

Poppy farmers who give their daughters in marriage to lenders receive quittance -- and sometimes a cash dowry that can be used to start a new life. Even so, such opportunity offers little consolation to those who have chosen that path; loan brides are considered a shame to the culture. "The fathers who sell their daughters to settle their opium debts are ashamed of what they're doing," Nawa said. "It is not something that is accepted or normal."

There are no statistics on how many girls have been traded as a result of the opium trade. Data collection isn't the norm in Afghanistan--not even for birth records. And when these marriages are performed without being registered with the state or religious authorities, statistics are likely to be clouded by severe inconsistencies; the real number of girls entering marriage before 18 could be much higher.

Despite the shame and heartache the opium trade has brought Afghan families, poppy cultivation is proven increasingly resilient. For a country that's ranked almost at the bottom of the Human Development Index, growing opium poppy can be a real opportunity. Stories of those who have improved their lives through the illicit crop continue to be a source of inspiration. There are farmers who grow rich and reinvest the opium money to rebuild their communities. There are women who enjoy the ability to work; cultivating and processing opium are done within a compound, thus available to women under the Taliban regime. This gives women a chance to become an integral part of the society.

Still, many farmers want to stop growing poppy, but they won't until they can establish other sources of income.

And it's possible. Nawa has seen it: a woman who was able to quit opium cultivation once she had provided alternative sources of income for her family.

Poppy had given her the money to buy her son a car that he turned into a taxi. She also bought her daughter a carpet frame that turned into another source of revenue. "I think women who do grow poppy are very willing to stop growing poppy if they're able to invest in other businesses," Nawa said.

But such cases are rare. The source of strength in Afghanistan--the Afghan family--has been weakened by the drug trade, war and violence, according to Nawa. Families are broken. People are drowned in a never-ending cycle of poverty. Corruption has sucked away most aid money that could have pulled Afghanistan out of the heroin assembly line, she said.