US embassy cable - 05LIMA2550

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 
--------------- 
 
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 
------------------------------ 
 
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 
----------------- 
 
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