This farmer wanted to quit the cocaine industry - he couldn't
A Colombian farmer who attempted to transition from coca cultivation to legal crops has returned to the illegal trade due to a lack of government support and infrastructure. The article highlights the systemic challenges in substitution programs, where farmers struggle to compete with the quick harvests and reliable income provided by coca.
Why it matters
It illustrates the failure of crop substitution policies in addressing the root economic causes of the global cocaine supply chain.
Image caption, Coca farmer Perea says he has not had the financial support required to stop growing the crop
When Perea stopped growing coca - the raw material used to make cocaine - he vowed never to plant it again.
He uprooted the green bushes on his small farm in a remote corner of the province of Meta in Colombia, reachable only by river, and replaced them with legal crops like cassava and plantain.
Perea was one of thousands who joined a government-run crop substitution programme aimed at helping farmers abandon coca.
But much of the promised assistance never arrived, and a lack of roads and recurring floods made it difficult to sell his produce.
In 2024, disillusioned, he began planting coca again.
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