Funding Focus

Peru Opportunity Fund links smallholder farmers to the information, simple technologies and capital they need to enhance their productivity and make informed choices about their land, their crops and their livelihoods.

Family farmers, such as those in rural Peru, are the backbone of our global community. Farmers supply us with essential food, and they are closely connected to the land, making them stewards of our environment. But despite their importance for food security and environmental sustainability, small-scale farmers in Peru, who work some 60 percent of the farmland, are mostly poor. They face daunting obstacles such as:

• Degraded soil, predominantly due to poor soil management and land erosion
• Ineffective water management
• Limited information about where and how to sell their crops.

As a result, many rural Peruvians struggle to earn a decent living. For example, the rural highlands are home to more than 36 percent of poor Peruvians and nearly 60 percent of the extreme poor. The challenges that these farmers face lead some to migrate to urban areas in hopes of finding work.

Our Goals

Peru Opportunity Fund believes that small-scale farming can be an engine for economic growth in Peru. Farmers’ ability to earn a decent living from the land has a direct impact on the environmental, economic and social health of the country.

Our strategic goals address the impediments to farmers increasing their productive and economic capacity. Our objective through 2021 is to develop and promote methodologies to bring much-needed information and tools to poor farmers in rural Peru so that they can increase their output and incomes while preserving and improving the soil and other natural resources.

Our grantmaking will focus on the following two areas:

• Access to timely information that will help increase productivity and link farmers to markets. We will support the adoption of environmentally sound agricultural techniques, both for their low cost and for their long-term positive impact on the soil and water. For example, farmers may be unfamiliar with simple pruning and fertilization techniques that could help them boost their yields and reduce the amount of crops lost to pests or diseases. Farmers can increase their income with information about markets or by forming associations with other area farmers.

• Access to appropriate, simple technologies that can increase productivity. We will support systems that deliver technologies that farmers want and that demonstrate direct benefit to them. For instance, simple processing equipment, drip irrigation or improved seed can affordably boost productivity and income. Availability of credit allows farmers to invest in these technologies.

We will also work to widen the support for farm families in rural Peru. We will carry out our work in ways to encourage support and generate contributions from individuals and organizations that have a stake in the success of small scale farmers such as urban Peruvians, government agencies, other foundations and nonprofit organizations. We will do this by sharing what we learn—positive lessons as well as disappointments, convening people who, together, can make a bigger difference, and bringing to Peru the best thinking and innovations from around the world. 

To learn more about whether your project might be appropriate for funding from Peru Opportunity Fund, click here.