29 September 2009 - In July, farmers from South-East Asia and their counterparts in South America met in the Upper Huallaga Valley of Peru to share and exchange best practices in legal crop cultivation.
The study tour included visits to coffee, cacao and palm (for oil) plantations, nurseries and processing stations, as well as visits to coca bush fields to see, first hand, the devastating impact that coca bush cultivation has on the environment, particularly on the soil, fauna and forests. The field visit brought together farmers from China, the Lao People's Democratic Republic, Myanmar and Thailand in Asia and Colombia, Ecuador and Peru in South America.
The tour was organized in the framework of the UNODC alternative development programme, which aims to reduce illicit crop cultivation and give farmers an economically viable and legal alternative to growing coca bush or opium poppy.
