NCJ Number
206472
Date Published
June 2004
Length
58 pages
Annotation
This report presents findings from the 2003 survey of coca cultivation in Peru, a survey jointly sponsored by the Peruvian Government and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
Abstract
The survey was based on the acquisition of 12 satellite scenes that covered an area of 23,400 square kilometers. For 2003, the total area under coca cultivation in Peru was estimated at 44,200 hectares (1 hectare is 2.47 acres), a 5.4-percent decline from 2002. The bulk of this decline occurred in the basins of Huallaga Central, Aguaytia, and Alto Huallaga. Peru's coca cultivation remains well below the levels estimated in the mid-1990's. This report attributes the reduction in coca cultivation to the temporary abandonment of coca cultivation (coca fields left abandoned but which farmers can easily regenerate); programmed coca crop elimination campaigns; voluntary coca reduction initiative by farmers in exchange for new alternative development schemes; and ongoing alternative development projects. The total production of dry coca leaf for 2003 was estimated at 50,790 metric tons, a 3.3-percent reduction over the year 2002. The average price of dry coca leaf on the illicit market was 2.2 US$/kg in 2003, with a maximum of 3.34 US$/kg in the Monzon river basin and a minimum of 1.02 US$/kg in the Apurimac/Ene basin. In 2003, the Peruvian Government reported the eradication of 11,312 hectares of coca. In 2003, the Peruvian national coca monitoring system detected an improvement in coca farming techniques in key coca growing area; this may result in higher yields per hectare in the future. Further, the year 2003 has seen heightened social tension and violence in Peru's coca-growing area, which could result in a reversal of the positive reduction achieved in 2003 in terms of surface and total dry coca leaf production. 13 tables, 17 figures, 10 maps, and appended supplementary information