Fight the war on drugs by drinking more coffee

Insight Crime reports that Bolivian coffee farmers are abandoning the crop for something more stable:

According to Susana Lima, Secretary General of the Federation of Bolivia’s Export Coffee Growers (Fecafeb), Bolivia is now exporting 70,000 bags of coffee per year compared to 110,000 in 2005, and this number is continuing to decline. Lima said that growing coffee has become less profitable as a result of the aging of coffee plantations and a lack of government incentives. As coffee profits decline, coffee producers are turning to coca crops as an alternative, she added.

A 2012 study reported the same phenomenon among food producers in the municipality of Yanacachi, who were turning away from traditional farming in favor of coca crop monoculture and gold mining.

There’s a similar dynamic to poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, which is often highly influenced by international wheat prices.