Harlem CSA blog » 2007

Another face of Agriculture - Cajamarca, Peru

Cajamarca is a highland town in the northern Andes of Peru. Set in a valley at just over 9,000 ft, Cajamarca holds an important place in our imagination of how South America was taken by the Spanish in 1534. It is here that Pizarro took the Inca Atahualpa, pretending to befriend him, stealing his ransom of rooms full of gold and silver, and then killing him. It was only a hundred years before that the Incas conquered the peoples before them. Today Cajamarca is the largest Andean city in northern Peru, but its people are still struggling from a long history of exploitation in the hacienda system. The rural mountain towns surrounding the city have some of Peru’s highest rates of poverty and malnutrition. About a decade ago the Peruvian government sought to bring wealth to the area by allowing a gold mine, Yanacocha, one of the world’s largest, to export the precious metal excavated in open pit mines. But the government continues to invest little in the area and has not spread the wealth of the mine to its surrounding areas.

Recently, certain native fruits have gained popularity and have encouraged a small market to develop. Micro-entrepreneurs are making ice cream, jams, and liquors from these native fruits. I am here working with the non-profit TechnoServe to help encourage production and marketability of the fruits. Once considered weeds, fruits like aguaymanto (Physalis peruviana or ground cherry) are being grown for a bit of extra income. Here are some pics of the city of Cajamarca and the village of Cumbico where aguaymanto is being grown. For more information about Cajamarca see:

www.cajamarcaperu.com.pe/portal/

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