Shifting patterns of illicit crop cultivation

Since the 1970s western governments have invested
substantial sums of money toward programs to reduce
cultivation of opium poppy, coca, marijuana and other
illicit crops. The main investments have been in
agriculture production and marketing activities to
encourage licit crops, social and health programs to
improve community wellbeing, legal programs to enable
governments to control production and trade in illicit
products at the national level, and eradication
programs to destroy plants in farmers' field. Despite
massive investment,  drug crop cultivation has not
been eliminated. Instead, the spatial distribution
illicit cultivation has shifted, the amounts of drugs
being produced has increased and the patterns of trade
have changed.

This session will examine the shifts in cultivation
patterns of illicit crops over time using GIS and
other modern geographic analysis techniques. The
convener will present map-based findings on poppy
cultivation in Laos from 1972. Other presenters will
look at cannibis in the USA and opium poppy in
Guatamala. Geographers with case studies on any
illicit crop in any country are invited to join the
session.

Contact: Allison Brown <[log in to unmask]>
Department of Plant, Soil and Insect Science
University of Massachusetts Amherst