Peru might soon overtake Colombia to become the world's biggest producer of coca, dpa quoted the UN drug agency as warning today in Vienna. The UN Office on Drugs And Crime (UNODC) said total cultivation of the crop, which is the raw material used to produce the recreational drug cocaine, in the Andean region went down 5 per cent to 158,000 hectares last year. But the decrease was due to lower production in Colombia, whereas acreage expanded in Peru and Bolivia, according to the UNODC's annual coca crop survey. UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa said the Peruvian government should improve law enforcement as well as drug treatment and prevention programmes, if it wants to avoid becoming the top coca grower for the first time since the mid-1990s. Coca cultivation rose for the forth year in 2009 to 59,900 hectares - a year-on-year increase of 6.8 per cent. In contrast, Colombia's crop area shrank by 16 per cent to 68,000 hectares. "The drug control policy adopted by the Colombian government over the past few years - combining security and development - is paying off," Costa said. Between a quarter and half of last year's crop was seized by authorities. As a result of government policies, coca growing has become less profitable not only for crime groups, but also for farmers, who earn little more than a dollar per day with coca. In Bolivia, cultivation rose 1 per cent to 30,900 hectares in 2009. The area has doubled in the past decade. While calling on Peru and Bolivia to do more to fight this crop, Costa also reminded consumer nations of their responsibilities. "There are limits to what the Andean governments can do if people keep snorting cocaine," he said. "It is therefore up to governments in coke consuming countries - mostly in Europe and North America - to take their share of responsibility and reduce demand for cocaine."
