Colombia’s National Police launched a new plan for the manual eradication of 70 thousand hectares of coca crops this year.
Police Director Oscar Naranjo told press agency Reuters the eradication of crops will be done chemically, but carried out by members of the security forces on land, because the crops are placed in fields where there is also food production.
Colombian authorities have been criticized for carrying out aerial chemical spraying as it is known to damage legitimate agricultural food production and cause illnesses.
The location of the crops that authorities plan to destroy now “involves surgical work,” Naranjo said during the presentation of Plan Pilot.
The manual eradication will be carried out by 2,400 policemen with the help of 3,000 peasants who will be contracted by the Government.
Colombian authorities claim to have destroyed nearly 230 thousand hectares of coca crops in 2008. Despite this, coca production went up nearly 25 percent.