Relevance of Irrigation For Agriculture and Rural Development
According to The Economist, Peru is South America's fastest-growing economy. That performance owes much to record prices for mineral exports. However, newer export products, such as mangoes and artichokes, are also flourishing. Irrigated agriculture has become increasingly important in Peru's development and growth, especially after a period of stagnation and limited development in the 1970s and 1980s. The agriculture sector employs 30% of Peru's population and accounts for 13% of GDP and more than 10% of total exports (US$1.6 billion in 2005). Two-thirds of agricultural GDP is produced on the Pacific coastal strip, a region totally dependent on irrigation due to low rainfall. High-value crops and irrigation technology have had a major impact on the coast's rural development. In 2001, rural poverty in the region was 5.2%. Poverty has fallen only slowly in the Andean region, where poverty reaches 70 percent of the population. Many Andean Indigenous remain trapped in subsistence farming on small plots and rudimentary irrigation systems. The region produces only one-third of the country's agricultural GDP.
Irrigation plays a fundamental role in increasing agricultural production and diversification, rural employment, and food security. President Alan Garcia has set an ambitious target of cutting poverty to 30 percent by the end of his term, in 2011. For the first time in three decades the state has money to invest and —with the help of the World Bank-the government has drawn up a new anti-poverty strategy which includes ramping up social spending and agricultural development while trying to target more closely on the poorest areas, most of them in the southern Andes.
Rural and Urban Poverty by Natural Regions in Peru (%)
| Poverty | Urban | Rural | Costa | Sierra | Selva | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Extreme Poverty | 9.9 | 51.3 | 5.8 | 45.6 | 39.7 | 24.4 |
| Poverty | 32.1 | 27.1 | 33.5 | 26.4 | 29.0 | 30.4 |
| Total Poverty | 42.0 | 78.4 | 39.3 | 72.0 | 68.7 | 54.8 |
| Total | 65.0 | 35.0 | 51.3 | 35.5 | 13.2 | 100.0 |
Source: INEI 2001
Read more about this topic: Irrigation In Peru
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