Colombian Farmers Switching From Coca to Palm Oil in San Pablo

In the village of Caño Barbú, near the town of San Pablo on the west bank of the Magdalena River, a farmer named Yoger Payares works a hooked pole called a malayo through the fronds of an oil palm until a bunch of reddish-orange fruit drops to the ground. A few yards away, for more than a decade, he grew coca. His move from coca to palm oil is the kind of quiet, farm-level shift that rarely makes American headlines about Colombia.

His story, along with those of several neighbors, was reported by The Guardian, which visited San Pablo and spoke with smallholders, an industry association and analysts about what the transition has actually delivered.

What comes through in their accounts is not a change of heart about a plant. It is a change of circumstances. Payares told The Guardian he entered the coca economy in 1990 after leaving cattle farming, that it solved his money problems, and that it also meant living with the fear of armed groups learning he had sold leaves to a rival.

A town of 275 palm smallholders

San Pablo has a population of nearly 30,000 and, by the figures cited in the report, some 275 smallholder oil palm growers. Camilo Santos of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil said close to 90% of the town’s palm growers are independent smallholders, and described oil palm as the region’s leading source of income.

The individual gains described by the farmers are concrete rather than abstract:

• Payares farms 11 hectares (27 acres) of oil palm and says two of his children have attended university, and that he now owns a house and a truck.
• Javier Mejía Palma fished for 17 years, grew coca from 1992 for about four years, and stopped around 1998; in 1999 roughly 50 people in San Pablo, mostly former coca growers and fishers, moved into palm with help from a land-access program.
• Sandra Cárdenas, who entered the palm industry in 2005, said she was kidnapped for a day and her farm was taken over by coca growers, and that young people now finishing their studies find work in palm.

Cárdenas put the shift in terms of safety rather than profit, telling The Guardian that people there “now live a life without this violence.”

The policy, the new president, and palm’s own costs

Crop substitution has been Colombian public policy since 1995, backed by subsidies, technical assistance and tax discounts. The Guardian reports that Abelardo de la Espriella, described as a far-right figure recently elected president and an opponent of predecessor Gustavo Petro’s peace talks, intends to keep the policy in place, with cacao and oil palm as the named alternatives.

The scale of the receiving industry is not small. Fedepalma, the national oil palm growers’ federation, put Colombia’s planted area at 609,142 hectares (1.5 million acres) in 2024, a 2.2% increase on the previous year, making the country Latin America’s largest producer.

Arturo Garcia of the consultancy Econometria told The Guardian that demand is driving the expansion, that many producers are pursuing environmental certification including satellite monitoring against deforestation, and that he is worried about the monoculture pattern the crop tends toward — pest spread, biodiversity, food security, and grower income when international prices fall.

Why this matters

We take these farmers at their word, and we want to be precise about what their testimony does and does not prove. What they are escaping is an illicit market run by armed groups, with the killings, kidnappings and constant fear that come with it. That is a story about prohibition and armed conflict. It is not a story about the coca leaf itself, which is a mild stimulant chewed and brewed across the Andes for millennia and is not cocaine.

The distinction is not academic. When policy language treats “coca” and “cocaine” as one word, the only imaginable future for the plant is eradication or replacement — never a lawful, taxed, quality-controlled market for leaf products. Colombia has now been running substitution for three decades, and the industry it is feeding growers into carries its own environmental bill, as the analysts quoted in the reporting acknowledge.

American readers should also note the asymmetry. Coca leaf remains a Schedule II controlled substance under the US Controlled Substances Act, which forecloses the legal export market that might otherwise give Andean smallholders a third option beyond illicit coca and industrial monoculture. We made a similar point in our coverage of Peru’s bamboo coca substitution program, where the arithmetic of replacement crops did most of the arguing.

So this is real progress for San Pablo and a modest data point for substitution policy — not evidence that the leaf is the problem. The plant’s longer journey through the world will depend on whether anyone is ever allowed to sell it legally as what it is.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why are farmers in San Pablo, Colombia switching from coca to oil palm?

Smallholders in San Pablo told The Guardian that growing coca meant living under threat from armed groups, including kidnappings and killings, and that oil palm offered a safer livelihood. Colombia's crop substitution policy also provides subsidies, technical support and tax discounts to growers who make the switch. Several farmers described concrete gains such as owning a home, a vehicle, and sending children to university.

How long has Colombia had a coca crop substitution policy?

Colombia has pursued the replacement of coca plantations with other crops as public policy since 1995. The program has offered subsidies, technical assistance and tax discounts to growers who transition. Cacao and oil palm are among the named alternative crops.

How much oil palm does Colombia grow?

The National Federation of Oil Palm Growers, Fedepalma, reported 609,142 hectares (about 1.5 million acres) planted with oil palm in Colombia in 2024, a 2.2% increase over the previous year. That makes Colombia the largest oil palm producer in Latin America. Analysts say oil palm and coffee occupy the largest planted areas in the country.

Is the coca leaf the same thing as cocaine?

No. The coca leaf is a plant that has been chewed and brewed in the Andes for thousands of years and acts as a mild stimulant. Cocaine is a concentrated alkaloid extracted and refined from the leaf using industrial chemicals. Conflating the two is a common error in policy language and news coverage.

Will Colombia's new president continue the coca substitution program?

According to The Guardian, Abelardo de la Espriella, recently elected Colombia's president, has stated his intention to maintain the crop substitution policy, with cacao and oil palm as alternatives. He has also been described as favoring a hardline approach to armed groups and as opposing predecessor Gustavo Petro's peace talks. No specific budget figures or timelines for the policy were stated.

What are the environmental concerns about replacing coca with palm oil?

Palm oil cultivation can drive deforestation, biodiversity loss and greenhouse gas emissions, with impacts varying by location and method. An analyst at the consultancy Econometria told The Guardian he is concerned about the monoculture pattern of oil palm, including pest spread, food security and grower income when international prices fall. Many Colombian producers are pursuing environmental certification, which can include satellite monitoring against deforestation.

What is the legal status of coca leaf in the United States?

Coca leaf is listed as a Schedule II controlled substance under the US Controlled Substances Act, which means it cannot be legally imported or sold as an ordinary agricultural product. That status closes off a lawful export market for Andean leaf growers. It is separate from the question of whether the leaf itself is harmful.