While U.S. officials say the yield of
Colombian coca bushes is decreasing, the most recent U.N. figures tell a different story, showing
that reductions have leveled off at around 60,000 hectares of coca, Engle writes. Production has also been pushed into
parts of the country where the state is weakest, particularly the southwest. In 2011, coca cultivation
increased 23 percent across the southwestern department of Cauca and its neighboring departments, Engle notes. Together
these areas are home to more than half the country's coca fields.
Above, a farmer harvests coca leaves in a coca plantation in the mountains of Cauca on June 21, 2012.
LUIS ROBAYO/AFP/GettyImages
