La Revista Agraria. Cepes (Peru). March, 2013.

(In spanish)

The Organizing Committee of the International Year of Family Farming - IYFF, is pleased to invite you to the International Seminar:

The Role of Family Farming in the Construction of the Development with Sustainability

Paper conducted by the National Commission for the Rural Development-CNFR from Uruguay.

Paper about Family Farming in Brazil, written by the American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture.

From Peru, we have the participation of Luis Zúñiga, current Head of International Relations of the National Convention of Peruvian Agriculture - CONVEAGRO (Institutional Partner of the WRF). CONVEAGRO, institutional partner and member of the WRF's Executive Board, was created in 2000 and includes all of the agricultural trades in Peru, including rural development organisations and professional associations.

Agricultural Situation in Peru.

75% of poor people in Peru live in the countryside and the farmers are clearly invisible in the eyes of the government.
In 1969, a process of Agricultural Reform was carried out. The average size of 98% of the Peruvian farms is less than 20 ha, what's more, 83% of the farms have less than 5 ha of useful farming land, which means that smallholdings predominate in Peru.

As regards the associative movement of Peruvian agriculture, he wanted to highlight that during Fujimori's government, practically all agricultural associationism disappeared, and the current government led by Alan García appears to want to eliminate smallholding.

Strong Foreign Dependence
Approximately 100% of the wheat consumed, 65% of the corn and 100% of the barley used for the Food Industry, is imported from other countries. Even cotton, a product of which not long ago Peru was an important exporter is now also imported.

Control of the Price of Agricultural Inputs
The government needs to exercise certain control over the price of inputs. He also gave us the example of urea, CONVEAGRO, more specifically the rice farmers, agreed to purchase urea directly from Ukraine which caused its price to drop to half the price of that offered by 4 suppliers in Peru.

Lobby Actions
CONVEAGRO works actively on lobby actions and makes proposals and amendments to the Peruvian government. In his speech he also regretted the approval of the Free Trade Agreement with the US, and the fact that as a result of its ratification they are looking for new markets, as the majority "are sold".

In Peru, the phenomenon of invisible farmers is apparent; it seems that they are of no interest to the government as they make little contribution to the coffers. This proposal for organisation would also be positive for the government for the purposes of tax collection. This has led CONVEAGRO to launch a business organisation project for the farmers, in order to increase their capacity for negotiation, profit, etc.
Among other measures that CONVEAGRO proposes to the Government is for it to exonerate family farmers from paying taxes like the IGB which collects 19% of sales and an income tax as an incentive to maintaining and improving their production.