Rioja (Peru), Feb 14 (EFE) .- The guinea pigs, also called guinea pigs or guinea pigs, fish and butterflies have formed an alliance in Peru to reduce poverty, as engines of several businesses that increased by more than 300 % the income of thousands of people from one of the most disadvantaged and rural areas of the country.
Nearly 40,000 inhabitants of the northern and Amazonian region of San Martin went from earning 1.91 soles (0.58 dollars) to 6.85 soles (2.09 dollars) a day thanks to the Sierra and Selva Alta project, according to the Fund International Agricultural Development (FIDA), its main financier with the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation (Minagri). The project invested 36 million dollars since 2015 in financing, equipping and giving technical advice to some 1,500 businesses of local associations, formed mostly by peasants in conditions of poverty or extreme poverty, eager to undertake alternatives to the cultivation of rice and coffee, the two main economic activities in the area.
The project will culminate in 2019 and the objective for then is that each of these initiatives be sustainable on their own so that they can contribute to the elimination of poverty. “In association it is easier. We will also give them support in accessing markets. The sustainability and benefits of this type of aid lies in having a profitable activity, and profitability comes from the ability to articulate to markets, “concluded Óscar García, director of the Independent Evaluation Office of IFA. EFE
