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