Fernando Castro, coordinator of Food Systems in FAO Peruwarned that 51% of the Peruvian population is at risk of facing a food security crisis if the current problems are not solved.
“We are seeing that one in four Peruvians does not have enough money to cover their basic basket of food and necessities. According to studies carried out last year on food security, we are talking that it could worsen in 51% of the population that is now in moderate food security and that they can quickly begin to have problems satisfying their diet.”, Castro said on RPP.
The executive added that, despite the fact that we are a country that has a lot of agrobiodiversity, the population does not eat properly due to the rise in prices.
“They are reducing the quality of their food, they are reducing the quantity of their diet, we have a large migrant population in the country that is surviving from day to day. We also have 70% informality, with people being satisfied with what they earn on a daily basis. So, we have a very risky situation where the increase in prices threatens us.“, he pointed.
However, the FAO representative explained that this risk situation can be controlled. “If we put the alerts so that the population is not affected“, accurate.
“Possibly, we do not have people who stop eating, but the quality of the diet goes down and that affects children from 0 to 3 years old who are the most vulnerable, pregnant mothers who need good nutrition and with them problems such as malnutrition child could be aggravated”, he added.
Measures
The coordinator of Food Systems in FAO Peru stated that recent measures such as the VAT exemption for some foods “have not been as effective”, as food prices continue to rise.
In this line, the expert maintained that the purchase of fertilizers will help, but considered that this measure must be agile and with good coordination on the part of the Executive with the unions, so that the distribution is efficient.
