Peru Results from the Agricultural Census 2013
Report Highlights:
After 18 years, Peru conducted a nationwide agricultural census on October-November 2012. Though Peru has improved its agriculture in many ways, reduced area of operations and insufficient credit continue to be important challenges.
General Information:
On July 2013, the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation published the results of the Fourth Agricultural Census. The census was carried out from October 15 to November 15, 2012. The last agricultural census was done in 1994. The following are the 20 most relevant findings of the census.
1. 30 percent of Peru’s territory is agricultural land (38.74 million hectares).
2. In the last 18 years (since the last agricultural census), Peru has increased its agricultural land by
3.32 million hectares. A total of 21 million hectares in the last 51 years.
3. 57.7 percent of the agricultural land is in the Highlands.
4. In the last 18 years, the areas for coffee and cacao production have increased by 222,000 and
95,000 hectares respectively.
5. 82 percent of farms have equal or less than 5 hectares.
6. Cattle population has increased by 14.7 percent (5.2 million head) since 1994.
7. Sheep population has decreased by 21.2 percent (9.5 million head) since 1994.
8. Alpaca population has increased 50.2 percent (3.7 million head) since 1994.
9. Hog population has increased 1.7 percent (2.2 million head) since 1994.
10. Poultry population increased 69 percent.
11. Idle agricultural land is 774,882 hectares of which 49 percent is due to lack of water, 24.1 percent to
lack of credit, and insufficient labor is responsible for 11.3 percent.
12. Only 186,000 farmers (8 percent) have access to credit. 91 percent of producers did not request
credit due to one of the following reasons: did not need it, high interest rates or lack of collateral.
13. Of the credit requested, 9 percent was used for capital goods
14. Of the producers that requested credit, 48.4 percent were rejected in the highlands, 34.6 in the
rainforest and 17 percent were rejected on the coastal region.
15. 74.1 percent of producers (1.31 million) use at least one agricultural technique. This is almost
doubling the 1994 census.
16. 166,000 producers receive technical assistance.
17. Agriculture permanently employs 180,500 workers and temporarily employs 13.9 million workers. Of
the permanent workers 81.2 percent are men and 18.8 are women. While of the temporary workers
72.8 percent are men and 27.2 are women.
18. Most of the agricultural workers (45.7 percent) are from the Highland, 33 percent from the Coast and
21.3 percent from the rainforest regions.
19. Over 160,000 agricultural producers have technical degrees, almost three times as much as in 1994.
20. The average age of an agricultural producer is 49.4 years old.
