Colonisation and Coca in the Chapare, Bolivia: A Development Paradox for Colonisation Theory

Changed market access in the north and the farm prices in the south: some lessons from the war on drugs

“…Coca shrubs, in contrast to, say, coffee, can survive extreme fluctuations in temperature and can maintain relatively good production levels even on very leached soils. (Plowman (1984), Eastwood and Pollard (1987)). Combined with the high farm gate price for coca relative to the competing crops (coffee, cacao, and plantain), and the age-old farming experience, as coca was grown already in Inca times, it is clear that this crop presents a most attractive source of income for rural areas in the Andes.…”