Coca crop cultivation in Colombia fell by a quarter in 2012 to 48,000 hectares, down from 64,000 hectares in 2011, a joint survey conducted by UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Colombia showed.
The Colombian government manually eradicated almost 30,500 hectares of coca bushes in 2012 and sprayed nearly 100,550 hectares from the air, reducing the area affected by coca cultivation in 2012 from what could have been 135,000 hectares to 48,000 hectares by the end of the year, reported Xinhua citing the survey.
In 2012, almost $250 million were invested to tackle the factors making territories vulnerable to coca cultivation while promoting development.
"With the average gross income of a famer selling coca leaf estimated at $1,200 a year, coca production does not fetch the same lucrative rewards as in the past," the report said Thursday.
Colombia is the world's biggest cocaine producer. The report put 2012 production of pure cocaine at around 309 tonnes, while cocaine seizures rose by a fifth to around 188 tonnes on the previous year.