The decision of farmers from the tropical region of Cochabamba in Bolivia to cultivate coca instead of state-recommended alternative products

E CONOMÍA Y DESARROLLO RURAL The decision of farmers from the tropical region of Cochabamba in Bolivia to cultivate coca instead of state-recommended alternative products La decisión de los agricultores del área tropical de Cochabamba (Bolivia) de cultivar coca en lugar de los productos alternativos recomendados por el Estado Juan Carlos Barrientos1 and Walter Schug2 Abstract: Despite national coca cultivation having been prohibited from 1973 onwards and the rapid reduction of coca plantations up to 2000, coca is still being cultivated in the tropical region of Cochabamba. Technical and economic aspects are responsible for many farmers deciding to continue to cultivate coca and not to cultivate alternative crops. Coca cultivation is technically more adaptable and less demanding than the five alternative crops analysed in this research (pineapples, banana, passion fruit, palm hearts and pepper). These require more input or capital from the producers than cultivating coca as well as more technical experience and skills on their part. In economic terms, the demand for coca leaves exceeds their supply, contrary to that of alternative crops; coca prices therefore tend to increase. This is why coca producers often obtain higher profits from cultivating coca than by cultivating alternative crops. Coca leaves can also be marketed relatively easily compared to alternative products as coca purchasers are less demanding regarding coca leaf quality, their transport is easy and cheap and there is the possibility of quick, guaranteed sales. However, many advantages listed regarding coca cultivation in relation to cultivating alternative crops conflict with coca being prohibited and the fight against its cultivation. Additional key words: alternative crops, agricultural commodities market, agrarian marketing, alternative development, comparing crop profitability Resumen: A pesar de la prohibición estatal del cultivo de coca desde 1973 y de la reducción rápida de las plantaciones de coca hasta 2002, este arbusto todavía se cultiva en las zonas tropicales de Cochabamba (Bolivia). Tanto aspectos técnicos como económicos, son responsables de que muchos agricultores se decidan por el cultivo de la coca y no por el de cultivos alternativos. Técnicamente, el cultivo de la coca es más adaptable y menos exigente, en comparación con los cincocultivosalternativosanalizadosenestainvestigación: piña, banano, maracuyá, palmito y pimienta; que requieren mayores insumos o mayor capital, así como más experiencia y habilidades técnicas de parte de los productores. Desde el punto de vista económico, la demanda de hojas de la coca, contrariamente a la de los cultivos alternativos, excede a la oferta, por lo que los precios de la coca tienden a subir. El cultivo de coca es, en este sentido, más ventajoso, porque les deja a los agricultoresmayoresingresosqueaquéllosquereciben de los cultivos alternativos. La comercialización de las hojas de la coca, así como su transporte, es relativamente fácil, principalmente por la escasa exigencia de calidad por parte de los compradores. La posibilidad de venta rápida –y, en cierta medida, garantizada– de las hojas de coca favorece claramente su cultivo, comparada con la de los productos alternativos. Sin embargo, muchas de las ventajas mencionadas del cultivo de coca, respecto a las de los cultivos alternativos, se ven desfavorecidas por la prohibición y el combate a los cultivos de coca por parte del estado. Palabras claves adicionales: cultivos alternativos, mercado agrario, mercadeo agrario, desarrollo alternativo, comparación de beneficios entre cultivos Fecha de recepción: 10 de noviembre de 2005 Aceptado para publicación: 11 de mayo de 2006 1 2 Profesor asistente, Facultad de Agronomía, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá. e-mail: Profesor, Instituto para Política Agraria, Investigación de Mercado y Sociología Económica, Universidad de Bonn (Alemania). e-mail: Agronomía Colombiana 24(1): 147-157, 2006 Introduction AN AREA OF APPROXIMATELY 2,500-3,000 HA was being cultivated for coca in the tropical colonised region of Cochabamba until the early 1970s (CIDRE, 1989). It covered the population’s “traditional” consumption, particularly that of the rural population. Despite a Law passed in 1973 (Barrientos, 2005) restricting coca cultivation in non-traditional areas (the major area of coca cultivation in this region), the total cultivated area gradually expanded from the mid 1970s onwards, reaching its peak of around 40,000 ha in 1989. The government had already intervened against such expansion some years before.TheProdes(inspanish,ProyectodedesarrolloChapare-Yungas)developmentprojectwasimplementedwithout success between 1975 and 1980. Between 1981 and 1985 the government again tried to reduce coca fields by introducing a voluntary and compulsory reduction programme (the new “controlled substances law”) but this also led to no positive results. From 1986 to the early 1990s the government first carried out “the three-year fight against drugs’ plan” followed by the “the integral development and substitution plan”; both had little success in reducing coca production (Barrientos, 2005). Law 1008 (coca regime and controlled substances law) was intended to reduce and control coca cultivation through a new alternative development programme based on controlling the production, transport and marketing of coca leaves, substituting coca cultivation for legal crops and controlling cocaine production and trafficking (Cardozo et al., 1999; Rojas, 2002). This programme’s first years promoted an understanding of the crops which might replace coca being planted and the methods pertaining to such substitution. There was a massive introduction of selected crops such as pineapples, banana, passion fruit, palm (for palm hearts) and pepper at the beginning of the 1990s. While the area devoted to legal crops increased (reaching about 24,000 ha during 2002), coca plantations in this region had become reduced to about 7,500 ha by 2002 (Dai-Concade, 2003; Barrientos, 2005). Following the boom in alternative crops, farmers again began to cultivate coca from 2000 in contravention of Law 1008 so that the area covered by coca fields was around 28,000 ha in 2005. Numerous factors are responsible for continued coca production.This research analysed pertinent technical and economic aspects to ascertain why farmers choose to remain imbrued in the coca culture. A technical and economic comparison is made between 148 producing and marketing coca and alternative crops to establish the most influential factors determining why farmers continue to cultivate coca. Methodology This study was based on documental and descriptive research. Quantitative (secondary data) and qualitative data were considered when analysing the problem. Cultivatingbananas,palmhearths,passionfruit,pineapples and pepper (being five important alternative crops in this development programme) was compared to coca to est (...truncated)