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900 and 2100 meters (though the floor is quickly rising, today and kept many in poverty. The Colombian government has
it struggles below 1200m). been buying quite a lot of bullets since 1979 at the expense
Many small farmers in Colombia were not prepared to of infrastructure investment.
integrate into a cash-crop economy, largely because of their Given the circumstances, many small farmers in need
lack of access to markets and lack of transportation infra- of cash, unable to get traditional agricultural products to
structure to bring inputs and efficiently ship out their pro- market, saw coca as a viable alternative. Coca is native,
duce. Living in quickly-modernizing societies dependent on and therefore, well adapted to the Andes Mountains, and
purchased goods, they needed a way to generate currency. has been widely grown for personal use (for chewing,
Lack of prosperity in isolated, rural areas has fueled not cocaine) for centuries. It can be easily processed
insurgent activity and kept Colombia at war since 1958 (as into paste at the farm level, and the value of 1 kilo of
well as 9 civil wars before that since 1839). By the same paste is equivalent to more than 250kg of raw coffee.
token, the difficulty of transit and danger caused by civil war Furthermore, coca paste buyers usually come to pick it up
and insurgent activity has prevented disadvantaged rural with cash in hand, while transport of other products to
communities from accessing markets for agricultural goods markets to sell them is costly.

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