Poverty in the agricultural sector fell by about 16 percentage points in recent years to 47.2 percent, stated Sierra Exportadora, part of the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation ( Minagri).
Poverty in the field shrank from an average level of 63 percent between 2007 and 2009 to 47.2 percent between 2012 and 2014. Sierra Exportadora contributed to this decrease via employment generation.
The president of Sierra Exportadora, Alfonso Velasquez, recalled that one of the goals of Minagri was to reduce poverty in agriculture to 41 percent by the end of 2015.
In addition, he said, the Ministry expected agricultural production to increase by 4 percent and the sector’s exports to rise by 17 percent.
Employment generation
Velasquez said the sector had generated 49,173 permanent jobs, equivalent to 9,834,653 workdays, by the end of 2014.
Over the past year this institution has benefited 78,000 farming families throughout the country, as they were able to improve their livelihood via the jobs created by Sierra Exportadora.
Velasquez participated in the Regional Agricultural Fair of Satipo (Junin), which today was celebrating the Farmers' Day.
Quality of life
"On this significant day, I would like to send a heartfelt greeting to all the farmers in Peru. I would also like to reiterate the commitment of Sierra Exportadora to continue finding formulas to work together," he said.
He added that this was the way of ensuring that the significant financial, logistical and administrative resources that the government made available to the sector were more effective so they could achieve the ultimate goal of improving the quality of life of the rural population.
He then added that the farmers in Peru were rural entrepreneurs, due to the fact that the country's future and the economic development of rural families depended on how efficient their agriculture was.
More beneficiaries
He said that they expected to increase the number of beneficiaries to 100,000 in 2015.
He also stated that this institution had ten national programs that focused on products with great potential, such as coffee, quinoa, alpaca, cacao, avocado, and trout, among others.
As part of these programs, technical assistance is provided to farmers through field managers to improve the quality of such products.
What happened to quinoa?
Velasquez also spoke about the country’s quinoa production, an export product that generated $200 million dollars in 2014, but that had a bad image at an international level, due to bad practices of some farmers who had made deliveries of quinoa with insecticide residues.
He said producers should be aware that they needed to change this misconception of quinoa in the world by ensuring they delivered organic quinoa.
"The Government has been promoting organic certification of products from the highlands with an added value through Sierra Exporadora," he said.
Source: andina.com.pe