Empowering agents of change in the Amazon

Since 2016, the Peru Cacao Alliance, an initiative supported by USAID, have been working in the Peruvian Amazon, to improve the income of 24,000 cacao-producing families so they can find in this crop, a legal, profitable and environmentally sustainable alternative. The Alliance has identified community leaders, who have the capacities to transfer knowledge and promote agricultural technology and thus improve the productivity of cacao plots, managing to become technological agents of this crop.

This is the case of Marten Pinedo, a technological agent trained by the Alliance in the "Schools of Excellence in Productivity", who has had a 4-hectare plot for 10 years. In 2018 he graduated as an agent and now he provides agricultural services in his community.

Marten is a benchmark in the Pongo de Caynarachi community, in the San Martín region. Thanks to the good practices he applies, he manages to produce 2,800 kg per hectare.

Marten trains 120 male and female producers in his community, conducting technical visits and field days on his plot. He is also a small fertilizer distributor and, in addition to assisting his clients in compost, pruning and pest control, he receives income of up to US$ 5,500 from the sale of these supplies.

By improving his income and assisting his community, Marten Pinedo is changing the face of Pongo de Caynarachi, in addition to consolidating cacao as a profitable business that keeps producer families away from the illicit cultivation of coca.