MYTH BUSTER: COCA-FREE WAYS TO SUPPORT YOUR FAMILY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 LIMA 002550

SIPDIS


E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL SNAR EAID PE
SUBJECT: MYTH BUSTER: COCA-FREE WAYS TO SUPPORT YOUR FAMILY



1. Summary: A USG-funded program helps break the myth
that poor farmers in Peru can only feed and educate their
kids by growing coca. The Institute of Tropical Crops
(ICT),supported primarily by INL, helps farmers manage an
integrated mix of crops, centered on cacao. During a recent
visit, training participants told the NAS director how they
are successfully raising their families, educating their
children and investing in other ways of generating income,
all without coca. Testimonials from two of the farmers were
positively received by participants at the Acceso Cacao
kick-off conference June 3 in Lima. End Summary.

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The Myth
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2. The cocalero establishment has successfully established
the myth of the "poor coca farmer" who only has one
alternative, growing coca, to live. This picture sticks,
and is repeated by many well-meaning people, despite the
fact that most Peruvians, even in the coca zones, do not
plant coca. Indeed, the overall poverty of the coca zones
shows clearly that coca is not an answer to poverty; the
exploited farmers at the end of the drug-making chain are
kept in penury by an industry that drives off productive
investment.



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The Reality
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3. Despite the challenges of working in zones that are
challenging for development, and are deficient in
infrastructure and state presence, different agencies
working in the Huallaga valley have promoted an integrated
mix of crops that can give farmers food and income. While
it is difficult to match the relatively easy income from
coca, many farmers and small business people have found that
they can achieve a life of dignity and security. ICT is one
of the agencies that help make this possible.

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The Means
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4. The obvious question is why INL/NAS supports an effort
that sounds like a USAID project. The initial, and on-going
link, is research into coca and licit crops. The U.S.
government, through INL, the Agricultural Research Service
of the US Department of Agriculture, and the DEA began
funding research into coca cultivation through members of
the faculty of the National University of the Jungle in
Tingo Maria. The group subsequently formed the Non-
Governmental Organization, Institute for Tropical Crops
(ICT) in Tarapoto. ICT complemented this funding with their
own funds, agreements with the GOP and local cooperatives,
OAS/CICAD and other small grants; developing a large body of
knowledge about crop management in the coca-growing areas.
Their operational research included technical assistance to
farmers in the area, and the results generated farmer demand
for more training and assistance.


5. In 1999, INL began funding additional agricultural
extension to spread this knowledge to other areas of the
Huallaga; ICT now provides technical assistance to farmers
throughout the valley, plus occasional presentations in a
number of other areas. Their work includes lab
investigations, operational research, demonstration plots,
technical visits, short trainings and on-site theory and
practice at the institute. They now require trainees to
phase out their coca. They have reached over 27,000 farmers
since 1999 through events ranging from introductory "mega
courses" to the intense 1-week internships initiated in

2001. Since October 2004, 17 extensionists provide on-going
technical assistance to 1,113 farmers in three zones of the
Huallaga. ICT also trained technicians from other
development agencies, such as Winrock and CARE. Research
into coca, cacao and agricultural management continues.

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Voices from the field
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6. The change is not easy, but farmers who have lived
through the violence and uncertainty of the coca era are
willing to make the effort-and succeed, " with a little help
from their friends." Here are the stories of two
outstanding farmers.


7. Don Antonio sold his worn-out coca land a number of
years ago, but now wishes he'd kept it. With what he knows
now, he could have rehabilitated the leached soil and
planted more cacao. After getting out of coca, he worked
odd jobs, then decided to try cacao, a crop that had
flourished in Tocache before the coca boom. He did not have
the necessary technical knowledge, and tried to get help
from a number of different agencies before a local radio
extensionist gave him some initial assistance. This was
followed by assistance from ICT, which helped him develop
his two and a half-hectare farm into an outstanding cacao
plantation. He harvests over two metric tons per hectare
each year-almost four times the average in the area, and
twice the goal set by ICT. Don Antonio proudly states that
he has educated his children to be professionals; he lives
comfortably and just bought a moto-taxi to supplement his
farm income. He is also a model for the community. His
neighbor has copied his techniques and also has a thriving
farm. Antonio has become so adept at grafting productive
clones to rootstock that he sells his services to other
farmers. Don Antonio returned to the internship course as a
master teacher, to help his neighbors and other learn, and
as a striking example of what the future can hold for them.


8. Doa Judith is a dynamic young woman reminiscent of a
Chinese acrobat, spinning multiple plates while doing
gymnastics. Cacao is her main business; she has never grown
coca, despite pressure to do so in her community. She has
received assistance from ICT with her eight hectares of
cacao and is making enough money to send her children to
private schools, an accomplishment she proudly mentions.
Judith has also received help from other sources, such as a
loan from USAID contractor Prisma and an award from GTZ.
She also makes and sells yogurt and fruit drinks, keeps
hives and sells honey, and makes marmalade and wine from
cacao fruit. Her strongest message to her fellow
classmates: train the women as well as the men. (Her class
has seven women, out of thirty; on the high side of ICT's
average class. It is still not easy for a woman to leave
her domestic duties for a week's class).


9. These two farmers are not average. They are
outstanding individuals with determination and persistence
that has led to their success. But they started with the
same resources and disadvantages as their neighbors, and
have been able to earn themselves a dignified life, to walk,
in the words of Don Antonio, with their heads held high.
While further advanced than most of their colleagues, they
are not alone in investing in a licit economy.

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What Next
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10. ICT presented its research as a technical resource at
the kick-off of the Acceso project, a private-public effort
to improve cacao production and marketing. It also
presented video of Antonio and Judith describing their cacao
farms. For conference participants, it was a human face to
the rhetoric of helping farmers improve production. For ICT,
Acceso is one way to achieve the next important step:
building a secure market at a fair price for the increase
production of improved cacao. The project will also foster
interchanges among growers, scientists, technicians and
consuming industries in the participating countries
(Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru). ICT will continue
its work with farmers, coordinating with USAID's alternative
development program, and will be a technical resource for
the project. This promising project should be another tool
to help farmers who reject the myth that only coca can feed
and educate their families.
STRUBLE