Fact Sheet on Mycoherbicide Cooperation, U.S. State Department, July 18, 2000

Fact Sheet on Mycoherbicide Cooperation, U.S. State Department, July 18, 2000
07/17/00
Fact Sheet: Colombia, U.N. Discussing Anti-Coca Mycoherbicide Cooperation
(U.S. has allocated $3 million for U.N. tests) (680)

The U.S. State Department issued a fact sheet July 17 on discussions between Colombia and the United Nations on the testing of a biological agent, or mycoherbicide, that could be used to control illicit coca cultivation. The United States has allocated $3 million to the U.N. to help fund these tests, according to the release.

Following is the text:

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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman

July 17, 2000

FACT SHEET

COLOMBIA: UNDCP MYCOHERBICIDE PROJECT

The Government of Colombia and the UN International Drug Control Program (UNDCP) are discussing potential cooperation to test a biological control agent that could be used to control illicit coca cultivation. The U.S. has allocated $3 million of funds appropriated in Fiscal Year 1999 to the UN to help fund these tests.

No testing of such an agent has been done in Colombia and none will proceed without the full cooperation and approval of the Colombian government.

The discussions on this subject are proceeding against the backdrop of Colombian government commitment to eliminate illicit coca cultivation. Colombia's 122,000-hectare coca crop is the largest in the world, accounting for about 70% of illicit coca worldwide. Colombia's crop has doubled since 1995. Much of the increase is in guerrilla-dominated areas where antinarcotics forces have little access and face huge security risks.

Coca cultivation and processing pose serious hazards to Colombia's ecology. Several hectares of rain forest are slashed and burned for every hectare of coca planted. For each hectare of coca grown and processed into cocaine, growers and traffickers, with no respect for the environment, generate and dump an estimated two tons of pesticides, fertilizers and toxic processing chemical waste into Colombia's soils, streams, and rivers.

Mycoherbicides are a form of biological control. Biological control is the science and technology of controlling pests using naturally occurring enemies of that pest. Mycoherbicides focus on agricultural-related targets -- in this case illicit coca cultivation -- using fungal biological control agents in the place of chemical herbicides.

The reliance on naturally-occurring agents means that mycoherbicide technology involves no genetic engineering or alteration. In this regard, mycoherbicides are a potentially cheaper and environmentally safer way to eradicate illicit drug crops than chemical herbicides.

The research, development, and potential application of mycoherbicides in this narcotics control context is identical to the way mycoherbicides are being used to control pests, promote agricultural development, and advance environmentally sound integrated pest management worldwide.

So far, testing of mycoherbicides to control coca has been limited to laboratory research and limited field testing in the U.S. Results have been promising: these tests identified a mycoherbicide that attacked only coca plants, killed them, and did not spread to any other host. It has been effective and, from the important environmental and health safety perspectives, both host and area-specific.

The Colombia tests are needed to develop definitive data on the safety and efficacy of these agents in their intended environment. The project would be undertaken through a comprehensive set of field trials at secure small sites (probably less than a hectare each) provided by the Government of Colombia.

The proposed test in Colombia would use only Fusarium that occurs naturally in Colombia. No biological control agent exogenous to Colombia would be used.

The project calls for creation of an International Panel of Experts to design and approve the final research program. An international consultant, working with a project manager from the implementing agency in Colombia, would design and monitor progress of experiments.

The U.S. is meanwhile funding several million dollars worth of complementary research to identify and develop safe and effective biological controls to combat pests that plague cacao, bananas, coffee, and other alternative development crops to replace narcotics production.

The herbicide now being used in Colombia is glyphosate, a widely tested non-toxic chemical herbicide that is used extensively worldwide. Glyphosate is not a mycoherbicide.

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As of July 18, 2000, this document was also available online at http://usinfo.state.gov/admin/011/lef101.htm