Second agrarian reform in the Amazon: an urgent challenge with articulated actions

The Minister of Agrarian Development and Irrigation (Midagri), Víctor Maita Frisancho, highlighted the need to direct the second agrarian reform on the main axes of the Peruvian Amazon, based on its main productive virtues and in favor of citizens’ family farming of that region.

During your participation in the III Amazon Business Congress: “The urgent challenge of sustainable and inclusive development of the Peruvian Amazon”Maita said that, for this purpose, the government has initiated a set of measures, among which is the program “Promotion and Sustainable Management of Forest Production in Peru” signed with the German Development Bank (KFW).

He also said that the proposed reform includes, with special emphasis, the generation of social welfare with food security in the eastern region, as well as the economic reactivation and productive activities with agricultural and rural development.

“Among the results that are expected to be achieved between 2022 and 2026 from the forestry program, 500 million dollars are expected in new investments for the sector; 56 thousand new employees generated directly and indirectly; 2.7 million rural inhabitants benefited in the nine prioritized departments of the program, and 3.2 million hectares managed with sustainable practices ”, he said.

Amazon: articulated strategies

For her part, the former Minister of Development and Social Inclusion, Carolina Trivelli, pointed out that the second agrarian reform for the Amazon must be attacked from different fronts and in comprehensive packages, not isolated, for the benefit of local populations, and especially for agriculture. family.

Along these lines, he remarked that a first step would be to establish articulated interventions, a joint look through packages that, as a whole, generate the possibility of real innovation to change living conditions and opportunities. This would make the ‘field equal for all’ and solve the set of constraints.

In a second moment, the FAO advisor remarked that, for these packaged interventions to occur, a governance that allows and promotes it is required. That the different actors involved are seated in the same space for strategies with the same objectives.

“We don’t need a single silver bullet. We need a host of them, who work together and in spaces of collective governance. This will make it possible to build an agenda with implementation strategies for joint articulation, ”said Trivelli.

Agrarian development in the Amazon

Clímaco Cárdenas, president of Conveagro, affirmed that reforestation involves a discussion from intercultural education models, understanding how we think about the environment and carbon sequestration in the Amazon region.

He also mentioned that, in the medium term, the potential of beauty and personal care products as a market for the eastern region of Peru should be debated, which have a ‘spectacular market niche’ based on the responsible exploitation of own resources.

“When we begin to see the potential that our Amazon has, we recognize a group of Peruvians who require an opportunity. We require maturity to seat the Executive, gores, organizations and companies to, in a joint model, deconstruct everything that has been done but, most importantly, find the how, the know-how that does not appear in the speech to date ” , said Cárdenas.

Meanwhile, Gilber Escudero, president of the Tarapoto Chamber of Commerce and Industry, presented the five guidelines developed by the organization with a view to strengthening the agrarian scheme in the Peruvian Amazon, with a special emphasis on the development of communities through access to credits and cooperativism.

Among the main recommendations are the development of irrigation infrastructure and an agricultural development bank at the service of family farming, as described below:

1. Strengthen agrarian agencies, adjusting their intervention to a territorial approach and turning them into development nodes based on subsidy principles.
2. Promote more and better markets for family farming and food security within the guidelines of action. Purchase of products for state programs, is wanted is a purchase program.
3. Industrialization of agriculture and productive transformation of the countryside by promoting successful models in the region.
4. Generate water security. Increase the development of irrigation infrastructure, promoting technological change and innovation, agricultural and forestry promotion, in addition to strengthening the various forms of organization of agricultural producers through associations and cooperatives with agricultural credits
5. An agricultural development bank at the service of family farming, as well as a support fund for the development of rural women. Strengthen peasant communities as economic organizations for agricultural and rural development.

Oil palm development

For his part, Jorge Gallo, representative of the National Board of Palm Growers (Jumpalma), highlighted the need to promote policies from the government for the efficient production of palm oil on the Amazonian territory, which has important hydric and territorial advantages compared to to other countries in the region.

In this sense, the expert explained that the growth of this market in Ecuador, Colombia and Honduras has been the result of a broad participation of the government, which has contributed to encouraging the cultivation of oil palm through income tax exemptions, value added, among others.

“In Aguaitya we have a 25% extraction rate. What happens is that the levels of productivity at the field level are not sufficient due to lack of support and government policies that help to develop their production. If someone in Peru made that decision, our country would become the first producer of palm oil in Latin America ”, he referred.