ILLEGAL CROP IS SWAPPED FOR LEGAL ONE IN MEXICO

ATOYAC DE ALVAREZ, Mexico- David Garcia knew he was through with the
opium poppy business when he saw the helicopter taking aerial shots of
his village near here.

The 2008 incident wasn't the first time the government came to destroy
his plants, but this time things were different. Coffee prices were
surging, and many opium poppy growers in this southern state of
Guerrero, who make the raw material used for heroin, had already begun
switching to the legal crop.

Until then, Mr. Garcia said, "I didn't want to go into coffee because
I couldn't make enough to live."

Opium poppy farmers throughout Mexico and other countries, such as
nearby Colombia, are uprooting their stalks and planting coffee in its
place now that the beans trade at 14-year highs.

Wary of escalating drug violence and government crackdowns, these
farmers say they see coffee as an opportunity to dedicate themselves
to a more honest business-not necessarily as lucrative, but less risky
and finally profitable again.

Nowhere is the switch more apparent than in Guerrero, one of the main
Mexico state growers of opium poppies for heroin as well as the
country's top producer of natural arabica coffee beans. Many of the
state's poppies are grown within coffee plantations because they need
similar growing conditions, such as high altitude and trees that
provide shade for coffee and hiding for the poppies.

In 1992, international coffee prices hit a multiyear low of less than
42 cents a pound. Today, coffee futures are at more than six times
that level, almost $2.95 a pound.

Like Mr. Garcia, other poppy farmers are now reviving coffee
plantations they neglected when prices were historically low, sawing
off old branches and planting new trees. But progress is gradual. New
coffee bushes take at least three years to produce berries, so some
farmers continue growing poppies in the meantime.

So, despite the trend, opium poppy production remains high in Mexico.
A record 19,500 hectares (about 48,000 acres) in the country were
cultivated with poppies in 2009, up from 15,000 the previous year,
according to the CIA's latest crime and narcotics report.

Officials estimate that more than 50 metric tons of pure heroin were
produced from the gum extracted from these poppies, with most of it
going to the U.S.

Earlier this year, Francisco Piedragil, who heads the Guerrero state
coffee council, met with producers in various coffee-producing
villages in the mountains of the Sierra Madre del Sur to urge them to
dedicate themselves completely to coffee.

"It's a strategic crop because it can develop and redirect the
neighborhoods where drug trafficking is normally incubated, where
violence and lack of infrastructure are bred," he said.

Many of the mountain region's coffee farmers, who spoke on condition
of anonymity, said they have either abandoned the opium trade during
the past five years, or plan to because they are tired of the risks.

In one of the region's coffee-producing villages, all of the poppy
producers were forced to stop planting the illegal flower by locals
who saw it as a disgrace and who wanted to start over with coffee, Mr.
Piedragil said. The last remaining opium poppy producer was shot at
repeatedly in January by someone hidden in the foliage, coffee farmers
say. The farmer survived and fled the town.

When coffee prices dropped, many of the farmers said they couldn't
feed their families. They weren't proud of entering the narcotics
business, but they saw themselves with only two options: migrate to
the U.S. to look for construction work or other manual labor and send
money back to their villages, or stay and start planting opium
poppies. Many of them didn't have the money to make the trip north.

Opium gum, extracted with knives from the green bulb at the center of
a poppy flower, is still more profitable than coffee. It is a dark
pink substance that is ready for harvesting when the flower's petals
fall off, leaving behind only the central pod.

Producers in Guerrero are paid roughly $1,500 per kilogram of opium
gum, compared with $2.90 per kilogram of coffee. A hectare of poppies
could produce as much as 12 kilograms of gum, while the same amount of
land planted with coffee yields an average coffee of 138 kilograms per
hectare in the state.

But producers say there are also downsides to poppy production. The
flowers require regular irrigation, whereas coffee plants make do with
just rain. And usually, growers can't own more than a hectare of
poppies because the plants must be hidden.

Also, coffee plants are hardier than opium poppies. Heavy rains may
knock down some coffee leaves and berries while leaving the plant
intact, whereas it obliterates an opium poppy.

Mr. Garcia recalls discovering the poppies in his field drooping or
flattened after the troops came. "The flowers are very delicate, all
they had to do was beat them with a stick," he said.

Guerrero's coffee berries are processed using sunlight instead of
water, resulting in what traders call natural arabica beans. Although
washed arabica beans are generally prized above naturals, the state
coffee council has been fighting to give Guerrero's coffee a national
and international reputation, giving farmers further incentive to
abandon the illegal trade. Many say the increased recognition of their
dry-method coffee, which they say results in a sweeter in-mug taste,
in a country where a majority of producers use the wet method has been
inspiring them to give the crop a second chance.

Nearly half of Guerrero state's 8,000 hectares of coffee plants have
been renovated in the past five years with credits from the coffee
council. The number of coffee producers receiving subsidies during
that time period has risen to 13,000 from 6,000. Many coffee growers
organized so they could roast, grind and package their own coffee to
sell at a higher price than the beans.

And several producers, some of them former poppy producers, have
entered national coffee quality competitions and won.

"The advantages to growing coffee are huge," said one poppy producer
in the state who is in the process of turning to coffee. "We can
actually take pride in our work. We won't have to hide."