Intro from Peru

Sharon Stevenson (ssteve@amauta.rcp.net.pe)
Thu, 31 Oct 1996 16:47:39 +0000

Thanks to Mary Gold with ARS/USDA and to Donald Harris for quick,
interesting replies to my CSA question.
I'm actually a freelance journalist living and working in Peru and
have concentrated on the black side of "drugs and thugs" for the most
part over these last 8 years. (CNN, Eng. breaking stories, VOA/CBC radio
and Newsweek) However, my heart keeps leaping to the"white" side, i.e.
solving the problem, and in particular earning hearts and minds from the
guerrillas and the narco.
Now the farming link. I'm in the midst to developing and idea and a
project. Coming from journalist and TV and being a great Macintosh
computer/Internet lover, I just can't believe that it's not time to put
this advanced techie stuff at the disposal of the campesinos, the small
farmers who largely populate the cloud forest jungle of Peru's eastern
slope of the Andes. There are two projects in gear with some force, the
UNDP and AID. Neither have as yet glomed on to the real need for
computer communications if these folks are ever to really make it out of
the coca business.
I'm trying to cull information on tropical agriculture, organic
gardening, new finds, new research that small farmer types might be able
to use both as technical assistance and in seeking markets for their
products (at this time largely cacao and coffee, but with good
possibilities for citrus such as camu-camu, lemon grass, etc. While
there are local experts I keep thinking they, too, need more imput, more
stimulus of others in tropical areas, but also just the results of new
research--in a form, however, that they can assimilate.

-For instance, I read somewhere (but can't seem to find the clipping)
about a supposedly great compost made of two parts pig poopoo and one
part peanut shells. (PSPS??) Now they can "grow" pigs and peanuts in
the jungle, so where might I find more info on this. Is it really better
than any other compost, like goat or llama poopoo? Are there any kind of
repositories of this kind of new applied research?
-If the Japanese "Life in the Soil" video is as interesting as it
seems, it might be worth trying to get some support from businesses here
to get it translated. (After all we do have a president here of Japanese
ancestry, Alberto Fujimori Fujimori.)
- I also looked for some sort of tropical agriculture list, but see
none through Alta Vista. Does anyone know of any?
- Are there any centers for organic farming in the U.S. that I should
know about? The emphasis on organic farming is because the coca farmeres
(not the narcos) are very poor, especially since interdiction has caused
a precipitous fall in coca leaf prices and has helped to push the
farmers toward the legal crops. Also the rains flowinto the rivers and
t'would be better not to pollute them anymore than the cocaine
processing business already has!!
-Anyway my goal is eventually to get enough information to convince
the various international cooperation projects that they should put in
public internet centers in the major towns in the jungle as we have in
Lima, which could be used by all the farmer organizations until their
"economy" permits them to buy their own.
The center would come equipped with small cameras (to rent so they
could take pix of problem crops), scanners for the photos, CU-SEEme
video conferencing (or something similar), and of course just plain ol'
e-mail and web access. There are finally developing lists here in Lima,
such as that for the small and medium businessman and it is catching on.

Anyway forgive this first long post, but would greatly appreciate any
and all ideas.

-- 
Sharon Stevenson
(51-1) 444-4749
Lima, Peru
----------------------
Our best hope for civility? The Golden Rule:
Treat others as you wish to be treated--for the good of all of us! :-)