COLOMBIA CROP PROGRAM FACES DISARRAY

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- A U.S.-backed program to help poor farmers
abandon drug crops is in disarray because Colombia's cocaine
heartland isn't suitable for most other crops, according to a new
study.

The study, paid for by the U.S. Agency for International Development,
throws into doubt efforts by the Colombian government to help farmers
switch from growing coca, the main ingredient of cocaine, to legal
crops.

The study found that in Putumayo state, the heart of Colombia's coca
region, only a small percentage of the farmers who signed agreements
to abandon coca have actually done so, according to a U.S. Embassy
official.

The Colombian government promised to pay the 38,000 farmers who
signed the pacts as much as $1,000 each to help them grow other
crops. But as of early April, only 9,500 had been paid, according
Colombian government figures.

The farmers of Putumayo have been skeptical from the start that the
government would uphold its end of the bargain, and said they would
uproot their coca bushes only when development aid began arriving.

The new study, which was first reported by the Los Angeles Times, has
led the U.S. government to decide not to fund any more of the deals,
or pay for most crop substitution projects. Instead, the $52 million
in aid has been switched to infrastructure projects and social
spending to reward communities that eradicate their coca crops, the
official said.

The problem in Putumayo state, an isolated jungle region on the edge
of the Amazon basin, is that few crops other than the hardy coca bush
thrive in the thin soil, meaning that commercial-level farming of
food crops is impractical, the report said.

The study concluded that tree crops could work in Putumayo and USAID
is contributing to projects like the development of a hearts of palm
industry. The tree projects take time to yield results and don't
solve the problem of how farmers who abandon coca will earn a living
in the near term.

Colombian officials defended their crop-substitution efforts.

Gonzalo de Francisco, the Colombian official in charge of the
project, said he understood that few crops could be grown in the
region on a large scale to be competitive commercially with food
crops from Colombia's more fertile regions. He insisted that
Putumayo's farmers must be given some way to survive if they give up
growing coca.

"We don't agree with the idea that Putumayo is not viable," he told a
press conference Tuesday. "There are 200,000 people living there. We
have to respect them."

De Francisco said more than 2,470 acres of coca have been voluntarily
eliminated in Putumayo. Overall, the project is making progress, he
insisted, adding that Colombian government will go forward with the
program, even without U.S. support.

The U.S. government has pledged more than $1 billion to Plan
Colombia, President Andres Pastrana's program to dramatically reduce
Colombia's drug output. Most of that money is for military equipment
and training so the Colombian government can fumigate vast areas of
the country where coca and heroin poppies are grown.