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Project
Description: |
CICAD
wants to implement alternative development in the river basin of the
Huallaga through rehabilitation and progressive renovation of cacao
plantations and other alternative crops to cocaine. They do this in
order to find resistant varieties to diseases or other biological
pathogens that control the diseases which will increase the productivity
and consequently causing the improvement of the economic level of the
zone and the well-being of the farmers due to a gradual increase in
profitability. The project also wants to contribute to the recovery and
maintenance of the ecological balance by ways of implementation of
agro-forestry systems, which has been strongly deteriorated by the
increased extraction of forest trees and by the phenomenon of the
cocaine “boom”.
With an objective of
providing direct technical support to the Peruvian National Alternative
Development Program, NAS/Peru and CICAD support the Instituto de
Cultivos Tropicales (ICT) in Tarapoto, Peru.
The ICT currently has a state-of-the art equipment and facility,
as well as, 10 hectares of demonstrative crops in Tarapoto.
The ICT assists and collaborates with other governmental and
non-governmental Peruvian agencies, as well as, international research
institutions in areas of mutual interest. The ICT supports local
and national universities by collaborating on research and hosts interns
and graduate students interested in undertaking research in tropical
field work.
Because of the
importance of identifying suitable lands for crop production, the ICT
will support DEVIDA and its project executors by providing soil analyses
of samples from potential project sites.
A fully equiped soil laboratory will be completed by mid April
2003 and should prove useful in the planning of alternative development
programs and projects. In
addition, the ICT will also offer specifically tailored field extension
courses on topics identified by DEVIDA and its project executors.
Although the ICT can work in most areas of Peru, its focus is on
those areas that have illicit crops or present a potential to initiate
illicit production.
Specific areas of
research include: Integral production systems, soil conservation, soil
fertility, organic agriculture, improved genetic material of Theobroma
Cacao, research of diseases, integrated pest management (IPM), and biological
control of diseases.
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Objectives: |
The primary goals are
to undertake scientific research on issues that relate to
overcoming the impact of pathogens, diseases, and fungus on licit crops.
The project is oriented to improving the production of legal
income-generating crops and introducing new high-yield varieties of
disease resistant material. It also wants to provide both broad and
specific field extension courses to farmers and trainers in all aspects
of farming techniques including field management, post-harvest
technologies, basic soils analyses and irrigation, among others.
The project wants to
produce 45,000 hectares of rice; 35,000 hectares of coffee; 9,000
hectares of coco bean; 3,500 hectares of citrus; 10,000 hectares of
cotton; 50,000 acres of corn; and more than 60,000 acres of other
licit crops. |
