Peru's coca industry
For centuries, coca has been central to Andean culture and religion. But the mild stimulant chewed to fight off fatigue and altitude sickness has in recent decades become the focus of the illegal cocaine trade.
In its efforts to discourage coca cultivation, the government encourages farmers to plant alternative crops such as cacao and coffee.
Pichari lies on the banks of the Apurimac river at the center of the world's No. 1 coca-growing valley. Coca is the lifeblood of the economy in Pichari, a mostly rural municipality of 40,000 people.
The United Nations says Peru last year displaced Colombia as the world's No. 1 producer of coca leaf.
Cultivation of coca leaf, the basis of cocaine, is a part of Pichari life. The government's anti-drug strategy is to get farmers to grow alternative crops such as cacao and coffee but the benefits of the illicit crop are difficult to overcome when the leading cash crop can be harvested four times a years.
There is a constant military show of force in the region with a vibrant trade in the leaf that is the basis of cocaine, and where Peru's government is trying to expand its presence and combat an illegal drug trade.
The dried coca leaves are the world's cheapest, according to the United Nations, sold in 25-pound sacks known as "arrobas" that each cost about $6 in the region.
The village lies at the center of the world's No. 1 coca-growing valley.
The river cuts through a long valley that the United Nations says yields 56 percent of Peru's coca leaves.
The government says it will soon begin destroying coca crops in the region, known as the VRAE - the Valley of the Apurimac and Ene rivers.
Peru last year displaced Colombia as the world's leading producer of coca leaf. But unlike Colombia, most cocaine produced in Peru is exported not to the United States but to Brazil, Argentina and Europe.