Overview
- Peru marks Día del Campesino on Wednesday, June 24, with tributes, agricultural fairs, product exhibitions and cultural events that celebrate the work of farmers and rural communities.
- The date was formalized in 1969 under General Juan Velasco Alvarado as part of the agrarian reform, linking the commemoration to earlier state gestures recognizing indigenous and rural labor.
- Reporting emphasizes campesinos as the backbone of national food security, with family farms supplying markets and preserving ancestral farming knowledge across Andean and rural regions.
- Commentary and analysis highlight persistent gaps in support for small producers, citing Midagri figures that identify about 2.1 million family producers, roughly 1.6 million subsistence farmers, low access to technical assistance and financing, and some 2.08 million rural plots lacking formal title.
- Voices from industry and opinion pieces call for concrete policy steps—from wider technical assistance and investment in rural technologies to more balanced fiscal support—warning that current legislative measures favoring large agribusiness could deepen inequalities in the countryside.