CPTnet
February 21, 2001
Colombia: Cash Crop Coca

by Cliff Kindy

In the 1950's my in-laws, Church of the Brethren farmers, grew several
acres of tobacco as a cash crop. They did not use it, but it brought a good
return on their labor. In Wabash County, Indiana, where I live, diversified
farmers do not grow oats, but rather soybeans for a cash crop. In Colombia,
Putamayo Department, on the Ecuadoran border, local campesino farmers grow
coca for money, but plantain, yucca, and maize for food.

On a small plot of land a campesino's crops are all close together. Even on
a community plot of coca where each family may have several hectares (2.2
acres/hectare), other tree crops and vegetable crops are interplanted.

Plan Colombia, the US and Colombia effort to eradicate coca at its source,
has used aerial fumigation. Roundup Ultra has been applied at 10-23 liters
per hectare rather than the recommended 1-4 liters per hectare. Applied by
formations of spray planes accompanied by three times as many Black Hawk
attack helicopters over the rugged terrain of Putumayo, the herbicide kills
other plant life as well as coca in the blanket applications.

In Putumayo CPT visited communities where all the food crops had been
killed. Even if families were inside their homes during the spraying, they
had fevers, rashes, headaches, and digestion problems. Smaller animals
died, larger ones had to be sold because the pasture land was lost in the
spraying. More than 5000 people have already left Putumayo because of the
economic disaster.

One-tenth of one percent of Colombian land is used for growing coca. A Rand
Corporation study indicated that efforts used to stop cocaine use in the US
were far more effective than efforts to eradicate the coca at its source.

Campesino farmers who grow coca as a cash crop are caught in the web of
injustice and poverty that dominates Colombian society. Plans to solve the
problem of cocaine addiction in the United States and use should not
include destroying the lands of Colombian farmers.