The agricultural sector continues without recovering from the ravages of the fertilizer crisis and the weather phenomena of the second half of 2022 and the beginning of this year. Thus, in the period January-May 2023, this sector experienced a 5% year-on-year drop, according to the Ministry of Agrarian Development and Irrigation (Midagri).
In this way, the gross value of agricultural production until the end of this year S/16,651,682 million, in contrast to the S/17,536,567 million accumulated in the same period of 2022. This trend was mainly due to a decrease in the 7.4% in the production of the agricultural subsector. In addition, the livestock subsector also experienced a drop of 0.8% in its performance.
Performance of the agricultural subsector
In the agricultural subsector there was a fall of 7.4%, basically due to the lower production obtained from potatoes, which decreased by 22.1% (due to the delay in planting and harvesting this season, mainly in Puno, La Libertad and Cusco); alfalfa, -10.3% (due to lower production in Puno, Moquegua and Arequipa due to adverse weather conditions); olive, -18.0% (decrease in yields in Tacna and Arequipa due to high temperatures); quinoa, -48.1% (lower production in Puno, Cusco and Apurímac due to less planted area due to the delay in rain at the beginning of this agricultural season), among other products.
The setback was attenuated by blueberries, which grew by 40.1% (greater area in production in Lambayeque, Ica and La Libertad); grapes, +10.3% (greater area in production in Ica, Lima and Piura); paddy rice, +4.5% (greater area harvested in La Libertad, Lambayeque and Piura); avocado, +9.0% (greater area harvested in Lambayeque, La Libertad and Ica), etc.
Contraction in the livestock subsector
In what corresponds to the livestock subsector, in this period there was a decrease of 0.8%. This result was mainly due to the lower production of: chicken -1.3%.
On this, Midagri explains that it was registered mainly in La Libertad, Arequipa and Piura, where a lower removal was observed due to a decrease in the placement of BB chickens compared to those of the year 2022 due to the impacts of avian flu; This was aggravated by the high costs of food inputs such as soybeans and hard yellow corn.
Chicken egg production also decreased by -1.9%. This is due to fewer placements of bb pullets from the laying line as of November 2022, which has limited the normal replacement of laying hens; in addition, the increase in production costs due to the increase in the prices of food inputs.
Source: Larepublica
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