Pubdate: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 Source: Reuters (Wire) Copyright: 2002 Reuters Limited Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) PERUVIAN COCA STILL ON THE RISE LIMA, Peru,(Reuters) -- Peru, the world's No. 2 cocaine producer, has changed tack in its war on drugs, offering farmers cash and job benefits to eradicate crops voluntarily, but officials admit illicit cultivation still is on the rise. Nils Ericsson, the Andean nation's anti-drugs "czar," said on Wednesday Peru had launched a new campaign offering farmers a decent day's pay to rip up their cocaine-producing crops, and guaranteeing them jobs in infrastructure and other projects instead to develop legal economies in the drug heartlands. Peru until now had relied on forcible manual -- not chemical -- eradication of coca leaf, the raw material for cocaine, destroying some 17,300 acres (7,000 hectares) last year. It hopes to rip up a similar amount this year, but admits that to start with, only a small part will be done willingly. Peru's problem is that farmers, disillusioned by low world prices for alternative crops such as coffee and fruit, are planting fresh coca more quickly than existing crops are pulled up. According to the latest official U.S. data, Peru had some 84,016 acres (34,000 hectares) of coca crops at the end of 2001 -- the United Nations puts it a bit higher at 114,242 acres (46,232 hectares), while other Peruvian experts say the total could be 148,263 acres (60,000 hectares). "As a conservative estimate, it could be 50,000 hectares (123,553 acres) (this year)," Ericsson said. But he said the real issue was not how much coca was sown but how effectively Peru cracked down on illicit cultivation. Only a small proportion of coca -- which has been chewed for centuries in the Peruvian highlands to combat altitude sickness -- is sold legally for uses including tea and, minus any trace of cocaine, as an ingredient in Coca-Cola. Peru temporarily halted drug eradication programs in key drug hot spots several months ago in a dispute over eradication, but Ericsson said all efforts were now back on track. Under the new voluntary eradication drive, launched last week, Ericsson said farmers would be paid 55 soles ($15) a day to pull up their crops, adding that it takes around 10 work days to eradicate 2.5 acres (1 hectare). "The point is not to leave a hole in their incomes," he said. Many dirt-poor farmers say they are forced to grow coca illegally because nothing else pays a living wage. Farmers then would be guaranteed a wage for at least six months. "They're going to have an income deriving from their job in works that favor the community -- road construction, sanitation works ... school building," he added. "In that time, we would decide with them what we can do for development and that would start immediately, so there would come a time when work in the developing zones would replace these transitional jobs," he said. Ericsson said Peru had garnered some $600 million to $700 million to spend on drug interdiction, alternative development and prevention projects over the next five years. A U.S. aerial drug interdiction program, halted last year after the Peruvian air force shot down and killed an American missionary and her baby daughter after mistaking their plane for a drug courier, is expected to restart before the end of the year. Ericsson said Peru hoped that private investment in projects and the furnishing of credits guaranteed by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) would stimulate legal enterprises instead of drugs. Officials from USAID were expected in Peru in coming weeks to discuss the projects. He said one long-term project being studied by a California-based consortium was to produce ethanol for use in the U.S. market in jungle areas previously devoted to drugs. - --- MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk