Evaluation of the development of peri-urban agriculture and integral management proposal in the district of Cayma, Arequipa, Peru

Abstract

Peri-urban agriculture (PA) is a multifunctional activity that contributes to the development of inclusive and comprehensive policies with social, economic and environmental benefits. The commercial opening represents threats and opportunities in the agricultural sector of peri-urban areas of our country, transforming it into a vulnerable sector, precarious and without stimulus; this context requires his intervention to turn it into a competitive, modern and sustainable sector. The objective was to determine the technical-productive capacity, organizational structure and the external environment of the peri-urban agricultural activity and propound a management proposal for agricultural development with the local government (LG). The research was a descriptive-analytical type, with a qualitative approach, an action research method of the participatory type; the instruments for gathering information were: surveys, participant observation, problem tree, SWOT analysis (strengths-weakness-opportunities-threats) and focus groups. The study began with the diagnosis of the productive, environmental, political and social environment; allowing to establish real causes of the current problem, existing potentialities and the relationship and interaction with the other factors of the environment of the activity. The results indicate that 43.5% of farmers are engaged in other economic activities and 40.7% have less than one hectare; the challenges presented by the PA are related to the absence of specific public politics, lack of current information, scarce citizen participation, scarce public and private intervention in the peri-urban agricultural sector; then, the vision was developed participatively with the changes that are intended to be achieved; integral development strategies were formulated that have as components: the organizational, productive-technological, environmental-natural and nutritional resources and food hygiene. Finally, it is proposed that the development of agriculture in the Cayma district be based on co-management between farmers and authorities for their integral development.