How does frost and cold affect the economy?

Peru has entered its coldest season winter in which the National Service of Meteorology and Hydrology of Peru (Senamhi) expects temperatures to drop to 12 degrees in Lima and to minus 21 degrees in regions such as Arequipa, Puno, Tacna and Moquegua.

These latter regions are already being influenced freezing, which are not only a health problem, but also an economic one. University of the Pacific School of Government Professor Silvana Huanki explains why.

“The frost phenomenon has a strong and negative impact on the population. On the one hand, agriculture and animal husbandry (…) have an impact due to the loss of huge areas of cultivation, the death of livestock due to cold, hunger, diseases, etc., and on the other hand, in the case of health (. ..) we can highlight the economic impact of rising morbidity and health care costs on families,” explained Silvana Huanchi, professor at the University del Pacifico School of Public Administration

Not only the mining departments are suffering from the decline temperature. There is a phenomenon in the jungle known as friaje which, according to Senamha, mainly affects Madre de Dios, Ucayali, Huanuco, San Martin, Loreto and the Puno jungle region.

In the case of Puno, where poverty affects four out of 10 people, according to the Peruvian Agro-Convention (Conveagro), temperature fluctuations have already led to heavy losses for 28,000 farms.

Roger Flores, regional president of Conveagro Puno, commented to the RPP on how much agricultural production in his region is being lost due to frost and cold.

“In the crops, quinoa, canihua, tarvy, broad beans, papa, which are affected during heavy rains, are lost, and how much production is lost then? Between 82% and 84% is lost. In camel breeding, in the livestock 96% and he is not interested in this Midagri”,

The president of Conveagro Puno added that in the alpaca sector alone, about 18,000 families will be affected by the frost, as every year.

Faced with this situation, for this year the government has set Multi-industry plan in the amount of 524 million salts for the sale and thermal conditioning of houses, institutions and barns, as well as influenza vaccination, delivery of kits to vulnerable groups of the population and other activities.

However, despite the fact that funds are allocated annually for the prevention of this problem, every year it is reported that the implementation of this budget for combating low temperatures is ineffective, why has there been no progress in this situation over the years?

“Because it is a matter of non-compliance budgets participation, on the one hand, on the other hand, the population does not know the mechanisms by which it can participate in the execution of the budget, and also because there is no custom of accountability on the part of the authorities. If we had the habit of making the government accountable to us about how money is being used, things would be better,” said Jubica Franciscowicz, director of the Economics and International Business program at Esan University.

According to the National Center for Assessment, Prevention and Reduction of Disaster Risk (CENEPR), in the coming months, more than 434 thousand hectares of agricultural land will be affected by frost and cold in 13 regions of the country.

Franciscowicz notes that while most of those affected by low temperatures use artisanal fertilizers because they are family farminga crisis of this entry could increase the impact on the crop by 20%.