Colombia to give land to farmers who stop growing coca

Colombia, the world's top cocaine producer, will give land to farmers who stop growing coca, the raw ingredient for the drug, President Juan Manuel Santos said Tuesday.

Santos made the announcement as he presented his new anti-drug policy in a speech on national TV, after cocaine production surged more than 50 percent from 2013 to 2014 despite an aggressive US-backed crackdown.

"Those who accumulate more than five years farming legal products will be granted land, so that they can also become legal landowners," he said.

"There's no reason Colombia has to remain the world's leading coca exporter, and we're going to prove it."

He also confirmed the South American country would stop using the herbicide glyphosate starting October 1, after the World Health Organization warned in March that it is "probably carcinogenic."

Santos had previously announced the suspension in May.

Glyphosate -- also known by its brand name Roundup -- has been sprayed aerially in Colombia since 1994 under a US-backed coca eradication plan that came with billions of dollars in funding from Washington.

Colombia has been one of the United States' top allies in its war on drugs.

The United Nations reported in July that cocaine production in Colombia had risen more than 50 percent from 2013 to 2014, to 442 tonnes. Coca production also rose more than 40 percent, to 69,000 hectares.

"That's nearly 100,000 hectares less than in 2000. But the truth is that production has gone up for the past two years. And that was while we were using glyphosate," Santos said.

Santos said the new policy was endorsed by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the leftist guerrilla group whose five-decade war with the Colombian government has been fueled in part by drug trafficking.

The government and FARC have been holding peace talks in the Cuban capital Havana for nearly three years. One of the points they have reached agreement on is a plan to fight drug trafficking.

Santos said the government and rebels have already discussed joint plans for crop substitution programs.

His new policy also includes drug abuse prevention programs and the creation of a specialized agency to oversee the new strategy.