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COLOMBIA and the UN signed an agreement yesterday on funding to end narcotics cultivation and replace it with new crops.
The agreement between Colombian government representatives and UN drug crime agency UNODC, signed at its headquarters in the Austrian capital Vienna, pledges $315 million (£240m) over four years for eradication projects.
UNODC executive director Yury Fedotov said the deal would “help farmers adopt alternative development.”
Helping peasant farmers replace coca leaf, opium poppy and cannabis with alternative crops without driving them into poverty is a central plank of last year’s landmark peace accord with Farc guerillas.
But on Wednesday the Farc joined striking peasants in demanding the government end its “tricks” and honour the accords which remain unimplemented a year on.
Last month up to 15 coca farmers were gunned down by security forces in southern Narino department after they formed a human chain to block forced eradication of their crops.
