Colombia to deploy 7000 troops to eradicate illicit crops

Colombia will deploy 7,000 troops across the country to eradicate illicit crops and teach farmers to grow substitute cash crops, Defense Minister Juan Carlos Villegas said Thursday.

Speaking at a forum dedicated to Colombia's narcotics policies, the minister noted that growing cacao is much more profitable than growing coca, from which cocaine is derived.

"For example, a ton of cacao beans is worth 3,000 U.S. dollars, more than four and a half times the value of a ton of coca leaf," said Villegas.

The country is facing a great opportunity to eradicate illicit crops and provide local farmers with a more reliable source of income, Villegas said.

Colombia is one of the world's top producers of coca. Colombia's coca cultivation jumped to 69,000 hectares in 2014, 44 percent from a year earlier, according to a UN report issued in November 2015.

The Colombian government had used aerial spray to eradicate coca plants, but halted such practice amid concern that the herbicide may cause cancer.

Source: XINHUA