By NNN-Prensa Latina
La-Paz : Bolivia described a report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime as insufficient, press report on Saturday.
The UN report warned coca harvests have increased by eight percent.
According to “El Deber” newspaper, citing statements made by Interior Minister Alfredo Rada, the document has an empirical base that does not have the support of a census on production of the traditional plant in Bolivia.
The minister explained to the daily that the State is constantly concern with the eradication of acres of the crop, above all in traditional regions like Los Yungas, in La Paz, and in the tropic of Cochabamba.
The UN stated in its annual report that coca production have increased, from 62.763 acres in 2005 to 67.953 acres last year. It attributed the rise to the production incentives applied in the Bolivian towns of Caranavi, La Asunta and Chapare.
Bolivian Deputy Coca and Industrialization Minister Geronimo Meneses said a crop reduction process would take place voluntarily in regions of Chapare and Yungas, after an accord is to be signed on June 29.
The promise to eradicate coca leaves from the list of UN drugs and revert the US ‘Zero Coca’ policy is one of the main programmes under the Morales administration.