Peru is strikingly beautiful, possesses vast natural resources and an extraordinarily rich and diverse cultural inheritance. Yet in its mountainous interior it remains one of the poorest countries in Latin America. Many remote rural areas are officially defined as regions of ‘extreme poverty’ where family income averages little more than £150 per annum.

The Cusichaca Trust works with highland farming communities in the rehabilitation of abandoned systems of irrigation canals and agricultural terraces, along with the revitalization of other traditional technologies successfully adapted to their environment over many centuries. We believe that this offers some of the most appropriate models for long term food security, especially in the context of climate change.