Lima (AFP) - Peru's government has announced a year-long plan to buy all illegal crops of the coca plant, the main ingredient for the cocaine industry, as part of its fight against drug production and trafficking.

The South American country is among the three largest cocaine producing countries in the world along with Colombia and Bolivia, according to United Nations figures.
Peru currently produces about 160,000 tons of coca per year, and 62,000 hectares of agricultural land is allocated to it.

But about 95 percent of these crops are grown illegally and sold to drug dealers, who produce about 400 tons of cocaine annually.

Under Peruvian law, farmers must sell all their coca production to the state coca company, Ainaco, but the national company collects only 2,500 tons annually.

The government has a registry of 95,000 legal coca growers, but is now seeking to create a new registry for the 400,000 illegal growers.

"It is necessary for at least a year to buy the coca crop from existing registered producers and from those for whom a new registry will be created," Peruvian Prime Minister Anibal Torres said Wednesday when announcing the initiative.

The government's plan also includes the demilitarization of Peru's main coca-growing valley, the Fraim.

Peruvian forces have been stationed in the south-central region of the country since 2006 due to the continued presence of the Shining Path armed Maoist movement allied with drug trafficking groups.
Government opponents have criticized the new plan, saying it will increase drug trafficking.
"The government's message is that they are legalizing coca cultivation, and they will buy illegal coca. The message is grow coca, and this is very dangerous because we are talking about a raw material used in the drug industry," former Interior Minister Rubén Vargas told AFP.
Inaco uses the coca you buy to make sweets, drinks, flour and chewing gum, a tradition in the Andes to help fight fatigue.
"By encouraging coca cultivation, farmers will have two markets: the state and drug traffickers," Vargas added.
"This will cause immeasurable damage, not only to the environment but also to the rule of law in the country," he added.
Peru established a registry of coca plant producers in 1978 as part of the country's policy to combat the drug industry and trafficking, which also included the destruction of illegal crops.
Earlier this month, Peruvian authorities carried out a weeks-long operation to burn about 16 tons of drugs seized this year.