Illicit crops increase 40 pct in Colombia
Xinhua, July 2, 2015 Adjust font size:
A United Nations report confirmed Wednesday that illicit crops in Colombia have increased by 40 percent from 48,000 hectares of coca leaves in 2013 to 67,000 hectares in 2014.
According to the report, the production of illicit crops, which are used for making drugs, increased in the country's departments of Putumayo, Narino and Norte de Santander, especially in Catatumbo, an area where the government agreed with farmers in 2013 to suspend glyphosate spraying and manual eradication.
The Colombian government was ordered by the Constitutional Court to permanently suspend glyphosate spraying throughout the national territory because of its health risks to the population living near the crops.
The World Health Organization has classified glyphosate, used for 30 years in Colombia as part of the fight against drugs, as a "probable carcinogen," a substance that can cause cancer.
The government said it was going to find a way to replace this method without compromising people's health in order to control illicit crops, especially in the country's border area with Peru. Endi