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Latin
America
Country profiles:
Peru
South America Maps
News
and Events of Latin America
Latin America is considered the most
urbanized area in the less developed regions of the
world. By 2020, 85% of the population of Latin
America is expected to be urban. Presently, more
than 125 million urban poor are living in the region
(Mac Donald and Simioni. 1999), a large number of
them belonging to the socially excluded groups.
Urbanization in Latin America has usually involved
the biggest city in each country growing larger and
faster than the other cities. This phenomenon
results in urban primacy, or the
demographic, economic, social and political
dominance of one city over all others within an
urban system. For example, the Lima metropolitan
area has over 7.5 million inhabitants, one-third of
Peru’s total population.
The
tradition of urban agriculture seems to be at least
as old in Latin America as in Asia, but there is
less continuity. The ancient pre-Columbian cultures
such as the Aztec, Inca, and Maya had intensive and
highly developed agriculture systems which, however,
were destroyed and abandoned with the European
takeover. Although urban agriculture was resisted
during the European rule, it re-emerged during
independence and especially after the rapid
urbanization following World War II. Most of this
new agriculture grew in shantytowns and was not very
productive, based as it was on rural European models,
typically unsuited to the Latin urban context.
However, this improved as intensive production
technology was introduced in some places by Asian
communities (by the Japanese in São Paulo, and by
the Taiwanese in Panama), and as native animals were
successfully adapted for raising in urban areas
(like guinea pigs in Peru)*.
Poor
Latin American communities see urban agriculture as
an alternative survival strategy, because while it
produces food and improves household's nutrition,
the activity can also generate income and jobs,
additionally providing self-respect and hope for a
better future.
In Peru, especially, urban agriculture has contributed to
averting major food crises during the political and
economical instability of the last couple of
decades. National and international programs working
to improve the nutritional standing of Lima's poor
households are as old as the slum settlements
themselves. The Government has tried measures
ranging from "free food" to
"food-for-work" programs to combat the
growing problem of undernourishment. Squatter
communities have been planned and developed to
include agriculture as a basic economic activity;
women's groups have promoted programs of food
production for the family; and Community kitchens or
"comedores populares", where (poor)
families acquire and prepare food for the community,
have established kitchen gardens to keep vitamins
and protein in their diet*.
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