A record 54,674 hectares of cocoa plantations were sprayed last year. The U.S. sponsored campaign has led to complaints from farmers over arbitrary and misguided spraying operations. The impact of the campaign has been limited because farmers either find ways to minimize the effects of the herbicides or they simply replant on the same land a few months later. Other growers migrate, fuelling an aggressive expansion of the crop into parts of the country beyond the reach of the spray aircraft. Large swathes of virgin forest are cleared in the process.
Farmers are in no doubt that coca remains the most profitable crop in the Amazonian region.
Some varieties of coca yield fresh leaves in only 75 days. Other crops take several years to yield the first harvest. Furthermore, the coca traders pay in cash and collect the product from the farmers doorstep. A similar process, on a smaller scale, is underway in Bolivia. Severe restrictions on mahogany logging have rendered traditional harvesting operations unprofitable.