Valle de Cañete, Agricultural Program (Peru)

A two-year agricultural program funded by AusAID and Reledev Australia Limited ensured that 25% of small farmers in Valle de Cañete (Peru) were provided training and appropriate technical assistance in plague control with the objective that a sustainable increase in income can be gained through improved productivity and quality of produce. The project was implemented by Promotora de Obras Sociales y de Instrucción Popular’s (PROSIP) Instituto Rural Valle Grande (IRVG).

Technical assistance was provided through a total of 15,913 monitoring visits to participating cotton, maize and asparagus growers. Farmers received information about the state of their farms, technical advice and feedback on their farm management practices.

Project staff completed 12,130 evaluations to monitor plague levels and held meetings to effect a transfer of technological know-how. The project reduced the farmers’ cost of production by 39%.

The project's promotion of the integral management of plague has contributed to improved environmental conditions in the Cañete Valley. As a result, farmers have reduced their use of toxic pesticides in favor of organic alternatives.

IRVG maintains relations with the Agriculture Ministry with agreements that allow it to operate the Geographic Information Service of the Cañete Valley (an important service providing information to all the farmers).

IRVG will focus on developing a marketing strategy to promote crops with higher profitability than cotton or maize. Farmers need to access new markets and products to improve their incomes. Reledev Australia Limited looks forward to collaborating with PROSIP on the development of future projects.

Participants to Training Sessions	Number of Farmers
Cotton Growers	1,900
Asparagus Growers	178
Maize Growers	273
Total Number of Participants	2,351 *

* 20% of the participants were women