Achieving Environmental Sustainability, Social Justice and Food Security in Peru in the Face of
Global Warming, the Energy Crisis and Natural Resource Depletion1
Martin Scurrah, Researcher, Peruvian Centre for Social Studies (CEPES)
Over the past decade Peru has enjoyed sustained economic growth at levels rarely seen in the
past. This growth has been fueled in large measure by the unsustainable exploitation and export of
renewable natural resources by agribusiness mainly centred on the coast and high jungle and of
non renewable natural resources by mining mainly in the highlands. There is strong popular
support for maintaining the policies that have made these levels of economic growth possible.
However, Peru’s present agricultural production system is extremely vulnerable to the impacts of
global warming and climate change, the upcoming energy crisis and the depletion of the natural
resource base. It is therefore important to begin to implement now a series of agrarian policies to
meet these challenges and achieve food security, environmental sustainability and social justice in
the medium to long term.
The great diversity of Peruvian agriculture presents a challenge for the design and implementation
of agrarian policies. Although small and medium sized farms still predominate, in recent years
there has been a strong tendency towards the concentration of land in the hands of a small
number of owners in the coastal valleys where investment in infrastructure, such as roads and
irrigation, has been concentrated; where private and public services for agriculture are most
available; where climatic and soil conditions are most favourable; and where farmers are closest
to markets in the coastal cities and overseas. Agriculture in this region is highly dependent on
irrigated water from the highlands; tends to be large-scale, capital-intensive and dependent on
fossil-fueled energy; is oriented towards export markets; and concentrates wealth and ownership.
By contrast, and with the exception of some niche export crops, such as coffee and coffee,
agriculture in the highlands and jungle is dominated by small farmers producing for local and
national markets, applying agroecological farming techniques which employ few artificial
fertilizers, have low energy demands and both exploit and conserve most of the country’s
agrobiodiversity.
Current economic conditions and policies tend to favour coastal over highland agriculture and the
former is seen as more productive and more profitable than the latter. They favour agricultural
production for export markets rather than for the national market. And they concentrate wealth
and income levels on the coast, whereas poverty is concentrated in rural areas in the highlands.
This structure tends to produce economic growth at the expense of income distribution and food
1
Published in the bulletin of the Peru Support Group. N°145 April – May 2011. This article is a
condensed version of Martin Scurrah, “Políticas agrarias para un Perú post extractivista”. In
Alejandra Alayza and Eduardo Gudynas (eds.), Transiciones: Post Extractivismo y Alternativas al
Extractivismo en el Perú: 143-166. Lima: Red Peruana por una Globalización con Equidad / Centro
Peruano de Estudios Sociales, 2011.
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security and increases the country’s vulnerability to the challenges presented by global climate
change, the energy crisis and natural resource depletion.
Because of the topographical diversity, large number of microclimates and lack of detailed longterm climate data it is extremely difficult to make detailed predictions about the local
consequences of global warming and climate change in Peru. However, the rapid melting of the
country’s glaciers means that within a few decades this natural form of water storage will
disappear in most of the Andes. Whereas artificial reservoirs may replace the role played by
glaciers in part, it is probable that there will be less water available for irrigation in general and
during the dry season in particular and this will have a major impact on coastal agriculture,
especially as subterranean water resources are also being depleted. Although there may not be
major changes in the level of annual rainfall in the highlands, rainfall is predicted to be more
intense and erratic and the dry periods longer, placing a greater strain on storage facilities for
regulating the supply of water for agriculture and other uses and increasing the likelihood of
avalanches and soil erosion. On the other hand, rising temperatures will enable crop cultivation at
higher elevations in the Andes, but placing pressure on the land available for grazing.
In general, climate change will tend to increase the area available for agriculture in the highlands
but also the risks associated with extreme climate events; it will tend to increase the risks faced by
agriculture in the high jungle from plagues and extreme climatic events; and reduce the volume of
water available for agriculture on the coast and present difficulties for its management.
The impact of the energy crisis on Peruvian agriculture will be through scarcity and increased costs
for petroleum-based fertilizers, fuel for transport and energy for farm machinery and equipment.
The exact impacts will depend on the relationship between the prices for agricultural products and
the costs of the inputs used to produce them. In general, however, one might predict that
agriculture that is intensive in machinery and energy, that depends on agrochemicals for
maintaining soil fertility and defense against plagues and that is distant from the market will be
less sustainable. Under these conditions, an important part of coastal agriculture that, in addition
to its natural advantages, currently enjoys hidden subsidies and economies of scale could become
less competitive than smaller-scale agriculture in the jungle and highlands that employs low input
agroecological cultivation methods. On the other hand, the energy crisis could stimulate the
expansion of the cultivation of biofuels, such as sugar cane and oil palm, with the associated
impacts on the environment, land concentration and reduced food security.
Resource depletion concerns centre on the eventual exhaustion of non renewal resources, such as
minerals, on which the Peruvian economy is so dependent for continued growth and prosperity.
The depletion of these resources will not only affect the dynamism of an economy largely
dependent on their exploitation but also affect other sectors, such as large-scale, capital-intensive
agriculture, dependent on machinery and equipment. The expansion of mining and oil and gas
exploitation is also displacing agricultural activities in the highlands and jungle where the country’s
cultivated and natural biodiversity is concentrated. Furthermore, market forces and government
policies that favour and often subsidise monoculture on the coast and the importation of key food
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items discourage the cultivation, consumption and conservation of locally-grown native crops and
varieties that represent the country’s agrobiodiversity and are preserved in large part by smallscale indigenous farmers.
The probable net effect of these three future challenges to Peruvian agriculture will be to
substantially reduce – if not reverse – the present advantages of large-scale, capital-intensive,
export-oriented agriculture over small-scale family farms using agroecological techniques and
oriented to satisfying the national market. Current agrarian policies and farming practices,
although profitable under present economic conditions, are generating greater long-term
vulnerability in the face of climate change, the energy crisis and resource depletion as well as
reinforcing existing inequalities between the rich and the poor.
Alternative policies that would be environmentally sustainable and socially just and reorient
agricultural production systems to ensure long-term food security in the face of likely future
challenges would include the following:
1. Reorient state services, such as credit, research and development, technical assistance,
etc., towards small-scale and family farmers who supply the national market. This measure
will strengthen food security, increase production and productivity and reduce levels of
inequality and poverty in rural areas.
2. Modify the conditions for the sale and distribution of land gained for agriculture by
irrigation investment projects on the coast to generate opportunities for small and
medium size family farms and introduce a progressive land tax. This measure will
discourage the concentration of land ownership and promote greater equality in rural
areas.
3. Promote research and investment in appropriate long-term systems for capturing, storing
and managing water in the jungle and highlands in order to defend the population against
avalanches and floods and foment agricultural production and productivity. These
measures, which should include, amongst others, the recuperation of vegetation cover,
the construction of filtration canals, the combating of over grazing, and the elimination of
practices such as the burning of pasture lands and the excessive extraction of trees and
bushes for use as firewood, would need to be accompanied by changes in the legal norms
governing water management, including user rights.
4. Promote recovery, research and innovation in intermediate agricultural technology, both
traditional and nontraditional. This measure will not only contribute towards reducing
differences between agricultural production levels in traditional areas, mainly in the
highlands, and modern areas, mainly in the coast, but would also strengthen capacities to
confront future crises.
5. Promote research into agroecological and organic farming methods and disseminate the
results amongst farmers in order to close the gap between the productivity levels of
“commercial” and “alternative” systems and be in a better condition to face the coming
crises (as proposed by the UK Food Group in their 2010 report).
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6. Promote the creation of efficient and equitable marketing chains, such as that proposed
by the Peruvian Gastronomy Association (APEGA) between top restaurants and small-scale
producers of high quality native produce, and encourage the organization of small-scale
producers to broaden the variety and improve the quality of the food supply, promote
agrobiodiversity conservation and increase the incomes of small and family farms.
7. Promote and officially recognize the environmental services offered by farmers through
the creation of in situ agrobiodiversity conservation zones with state support and
subsidies, when necessary, and the implementation of equitable forms of proposals such
as REDD+ and others to maintain agriculture’s capacity to adapt to global warming and
other changes, increase the diversity of foods produced and minimize deforestation,
especially in tropical forests.
8. Declare a moratorium before allowing the introduction of genetically modified seeds and
use the time to promote research into the possible risks of their introduction, to establish
the systems for regulating and monitoring the cultivation of exotic and genetically
modified crops to protect native crops and species and conserve the country’s biodiversity
and to renegotiate international trade agreements in order to construct a seed
distribution system that recognizes national farmers’ intellectual property rights and
eliminates the distortions produced by the current system which is dominated by a small
group of multinational companies.
9. If the contribution of biofuels to the reduction in greenhouse gases is clearly
demonstrated, limit biofuel cultivation to areas in the jungle that are already deforested in
order to take advantage of the relative abundance of water in these areas and minimize
the conversion of forested areas into cultivated ones.
10. Create favourable conditions for the formation of farm worker unions and the defense of
the rights of rural workers, especially those working on large farms and for agribusiness as
a means to reduce poverty and inequality in rural areas.
The agrarian production system which should emerge over time as a result of these measures will
give preference to meeting the needs of the national market. It will seek to guarantee the
population’s food security by promoting national food production and, where possible, replacing
food imports with locally grown crops. The variety and quality of food produced will be enhanced
by the production and marketing of a much wider range of locally grown indigenous crops.
Investment in water management and storage will reduce the population’s vulnerability to
landslides, floods and other dangers. The promotion of water saving irrigation systems and the
reduction of water-intensive crops, especially on the coast, and their promotion in previously
deforested areas in the jungle will enable agriculture to adapt to the changing availability of water.
The greater use of traditional and intermediate technologies will reduce the reliance on capital
and energy intensive agricultural techniques as will the employment of organic and agroecological
farming methods. Finally the creation of small farmers’ associations and their participation in
efficient and equitable food marketing systems will ensure that they receive fair prices and reduce
current inequalities both within the farming sector and between rural and urban areas.
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