BNN Shifts Gayo Farmers from Cannabis to Coffee Through Alternative Development Programme

The National Narcotics Agency (BNN) is changing the mindset of communities from cultivating cannabis to producing coffee through the Grand Design Alternative Development (GDAD) programme. Speaking at the 2026 International Anti-Narcotics Day commemoration in Bogor Regency, West Java, on Thursday, BNN Chief Commissioner General of Police Suyudi Ario Seto stated that by shifting mindsets, communities can produce economically valuable coffee, thereby contributing to the local government’s Regional Original Income (PAD).

“In the field of community empowerment, the BNN continues to work to sever the social and economic roots that keep some communities trapped in a cycle of narcotics vulnerability,” Suyudi said. To this end, in cannabis-prone cultivation areas such as Gayo Luwes, Aceh, the BNN is implementing the GDAD initiative, a flagship programme to eradicate narcotics from the upstream by shifting the profession of illicit crop farmers to legal and productive commodities.

Although the programme, launched in 2016, was temporarily hampered by a major flood, Suyudi explained that it is now being rebuilt to operate normally again. He noted that the BNN’s current prevention approach does not stop at destroying cannabis fields but continues with community empowerment and the development of legal and productive alternative commodities. He argued that the success of the Prevention and Eradication of Narcotics Abuse and Illicit Trafficking (P4GN) cannot be measured solely by the number of hectares of illegal crops destroyed. According to him, sustainable eradication must be able to break the chain of crime while presenting dignified livelihood options. “It is not only better to prevent than to cure, but also about how strongly communities can stand on their own without returning to dependence on the illegal narcotics economy,” Suyudi stated.