"Advocacy with the Ministry of Agriculture for the inclusion of small producers in the Competitiveness

Compensation Program (PCC)", promoted by CARE PERU in conjunction with the Alliance for
Learning Peru

CARE Peru led a successful Political Advocacy campaign on the behalf of small farmers to be included in the
Competitiveness Compensation Program with the Ministry of Agriculture in Peru.

The PCC is a national program created on June 28, 2008 by Legislative Decree 1077 and led by the Ministry of
Agriculture, which aims to raise the competitiveness of agricultural production among medium and small
producers by promoting the forming of associations and the adoption of agricultural technologies.

According to its regulations, approved by Supreme Decree 014-2009-AG on July 10, 2009 - the incentives for
agricultural competitiveness will be centered around three lines of action: establishment of producer
organizations, organizational management and use of technology and capital goods.

The PCC works with organizations of agricultural producers (OPA) to co-finance:

• Costs of establishment of organizations.
• Fees for the highest management office in the OPA for up to three years with falling rates of 70, 50 and 30%
in each year respectively.
• Acquisition of capital assets such as machinery, equipment and other assets.

Initially, the PCC was intended for producers that are not considered to be poor and who have larger tracts of
land to ensure positioning in agricultural, livestock and forest activities. Larger producers would also have more
access to the market and could leverage opportunities for productive initiatives. The main criterion considered
was that these farmers should have more than 3-5 hectares individually.

When the D.L. No. 1077 ("Legislative Decree establishing the Competitiveness Compensation Program") was
announced, CARE Peru and the Partnership for Learning Peru questioned the following:
i) Smaller producers who have less than 3 to 5 hectares represent the vast majority of established
producers especially in the Sierra (55.4% nationally, with evidence from official sources -
CENAGRO 1994-INEI, and from CARE’s evidence with 98% of the producers with which we have
been working over the past 8 years) The majority of producers would have been left out of the
program.
ii) Whether or not the smaller producers are the least affected by the FTA between the US and Peru and
is this why they were excluded from the benefits of the PCC
iii) Could these producers participate in the program if they form associations?

CARE and the Partnership for Learning Peru advocated on behalf of smaller farmers to MINAG through a
series of conversations, meetings and events. CARE prepared a presentation on "The Effects of the FTA on the
livestock and dairy sectors, and also showed its direct relationship with the Compensation Program.

CARE also provided the MINAG PCC team with two papers; one referring to the evidence of the market
linkage of small producers, the scale of these producers and their experiences ("Inclusion of Small Farmers
linked to the market under the Compensation Program for Competitiveness - DL No. 1077"). The other referred
to developing technologies and their relevance in the Sierra ("Production Technologies and Productive
Infrastructure in the Guinea Pig Value Chain").

MINAG analyzed and discussed and ultimately agreed to the request to remove the restrictive requirements on
the size of the producers (whether micro, small or medium). This was an important accomplishment because it
helped to expand the vision, scope and target of the program and allowed for the inclusion of more than 200,000
small farmers nationwide who initially were not being considered.