Mariana Escobar: “The map of food insecurity in Peru is varied: it is urban and rural”

Peru is the South American country with the highest rate of food insecurity. In 2022, 16.6 million Peruvians were in this condition. Mariana Escobar, representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Peru, tells us about it. The outlook is not encouraging.

What are the forecasts for this year of food insecurity in Peru?

The data for the calculation of 2022 has not yet come out, but let’s say, if there is an increase in poverty and if one also adds up the entire situation of food price inflation last year, it would be expected that the situation has not improved. . It has a very high probability, obviously, of increasing.

What factors are driving this situation?

There are a number of actors and factors that interact here. Such as supply chains, environmental conditions, factors such as climate change, all socioeconomic, cultural, educational components, etc.

Who are the most affected?

In the case of Peru, on the one hand, we have some rural producers, of what is called family farming (…). They are producers who are becoming increasingly poorer, live with a very low income, have many difficulties producing, post-harvest handling and marketing.

And on the other side…

Here we have a final consumer who has less and less access to healthy food because the price of food is very high in Peru. Even before we had this phenomenon of hyperinflation of food a healthy daily diet per person was costing $3.28.

What does such an expensive diet imply?

This means that even people who have been lifted out of poverty have difficulty accessing a healthy diet. For example, last year, according to a survey conducted by the Institute of Peruvian Studies (IEP), only 11% of the people surveyed stated that they had not changed their basket and their diet at all. Applied again the survey this year, that was reduced to 7%.

Poverty has receded 10 years in Peru. Is it the same as 2012?

It is different because in 2012, in the same IEP survey, 17% of those surveyed responded that they had run out of food in the last three months due to lack of financial resources. And in 2023, 46% of those surveyed answered the same question in the affirmative.

What is this variation due to?

Basically, because there is no access to healthy food, there is an economic barrier to access food. People do not have the resources to buy a healthy diet.

In this scenario, what is the role of climate change?

Climate change is a new factor. It is here to stay, and the country will henceforth be subjected to extreme weather events that will be more and more recurring and longer (…). It is expected that now with El Niño Global it will surely continue to rain in the north, but there will possibly be a drought in the southern highlands. So, this can lead us to problems of physical access to food, that is, that there is not enough food available.

Falls in crops have been reported. What does this mean for food?

It is very serious, because first it has an impact on the living conditions and livelihoods of the producers. This implies further impoverishment and a very serious detriment to their food security. It also means that there will be less availability of food in the market.

Why does Peru, despite being a food producer, maintain high rates of food insecurity?

Well, that is the great paradox. A country that is a food pantry (…), and is a gastronomic destination, has at least half of the population with great difficulties in accessing a healthy diet, essentially because food is very expensive.

What makes food more expensive?

In Peru, the food marketing circuits are very long chains. An agricultural product travels enormous distances to reach a food or wholesale market (…), and also, it is a country with very high informality.

What is the role of the Government to combat this problem?

I believe that in the field of urgency, people who are having difficulties eating must be helped. Perhaps the most important channel, which can always be strengthened, is the National School Feeding Program, together with transfer systems, from programs such as Juntos(…). Seeds must also be delivered urgently to farmers.

How long would it take to reverse the high rate of food insecurity?

Food insecurity is a structural problem that cannot be solved overnight. First, it has to go through a significant reduction in poverty levels (…) and the conditions are not currently in place. The economy is slowing down, economic growth is very low.

What is the most vulnerable population?

We have the populations, for example, indigenous and native. The communities in which high Andean areas. Immigrants are also in this group. I also believe that the bulk of hunger and food insecurity is here in metropolitan Lima and in various cities in the country. The map, let’s say, of food insecurity in Peru, is varied, it is urban and it is rural.