This farmer wanted to quit the cocaine industry - he couldn't

This farmer wanted to quit the cocaine industry - he couldn'tImage caption, Coca farmer Perea says he has not had the financial support required to stop growing the cropByCatherine EllisBusiness reporter, Reporting fromMeta, ColombiaPublished3 minutes agoWhen 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."It's a tragedy," says Perea. "But when you have children and no work, what choice do you have? If no help ever arrives, you go back to growing it."Colombia's escalating, brutal internal conflict is defining its presidential electionPublished21 JuneBBC joins Colombian commandos fighting 'never-ending battle' against drug gangsPublished3 FebruaryThe coca leaf is an ancestral crop traditionally used by indigenous communities in teas and medicines. But today most of it is processed into cocaine. An estimated 70% of the global supply of the illegal drug comes from Colombia."Coca has some major advantages over other crops," says Lucas Marín Llanes, a Colombian researcher who focuses on the coca economy and substitution strategies. "Harvests are quick - farmers can get three or four a year - it's easier to transport, and farmers know what price they'll get."Research Marín has worked on shows coca cultivation can also boost local economies, increasing municipal GDP by as much as 10% in some areas between 2014 and 2019.Substitution programmes were designed to he...