At a Glance
Location: Peru
Impact Area: Suppliers, Sustainable Agriculture
People Supported:
Smallholder Farmers
Joined NESsT Portfolio:
2024
Overview
The Andean highlands in Peru are one of the country's poorest regions and are highly vulnerable to climate change. While agriculture is the backbone of the region, local farmers and their families often face poverty, barriers to healthcare and education, and rising food insecurity. This can be due to the small sizes and remoteness of their plots, long value chains with many intermediaries, and a lack of technical farming knowledge to improve crops during difficult seasons and to adapt to the effects of climate change.
Cooperativa La Perla de los Andes is an agricultural cooperative made up of 90 smallholder farmers in Ancash, Peru. La Perla de los Andes supports local farmers in the Huaylas province to grow tarwi (Lupinus mutabilis), a nutrient-rich legume native to the Andes that has been cultivated and consumed since pre-Colombine times. Also known as tauri or choncho, tarwi is high in protein and omega 3 and 6 and is known to prevent chronic diseases such as diabetes.
By providing local farmers with technical assistance to grow and harvest sustainable, organic tarwi beans that meet the demands of national and international markets and paying them preferential prices, La Perla de Los Andes has increased their income by 10%.
The cooperative also runs a processing and transformation plant where it supports farmers to produce value-added products such as tarwi flour and debittered dried tarwi beans. These can be sold at higher margins to superfood companies and customers seeking high-quality health foods and supplements.
Tarwi requires little water to grow and additionally enhances soil fertility and regeneration by partnering with nitrogen-fixing bacteria in its roots, which capture nitrogen from the air and turn it into a usable nutrient for itself and surrounding plants. La Perla de los Andes places great emphasis on preserving local biodiversity and conserving ancient farming knowledge. It encourages farmers to practice crop rotation to improve the climate resilience of their crops and favors solar drying and other techniques to reduce electricity and water consumption.
Results & Impact
252
smallholder farmers and their families impacted in Andean communities
80%
of internal staff are from Andean local communities
120
hectares of farmland under sustainable practices by 2025
“Our alliance with NESsT is crucial for our growth as a cooperative, as it will support us to increase the tarwi production at our plant, meeting the demands of existing clients and attracting new ones. With this technical assistance, we can support local farmers to improve their crop management, resulting in higher incomes, better living standards, and ultimately reduced poverty levels in our communities.”
NESsT Investment
With NESsT’s support, La Perla de los Andes will strengthen its relationships with local farmers in Ancash and provide specific training in tarwi processing techniques, marketing strategies, and small business management. This will allow the cooperative to further increase the income and economic stability of local farmers and their families.
NESsT’s investment in La Perla de los Andes will go toward new production equipment and plant improvements to expand its tarwi production capacity, supporting the cooperative to participate in government tenders for community food security programs and expand into international markets.
Additionally, NESsT will support La Perla de los Andes to set up tools to measure its social and environmental impact in a user-friendly format that can be used by local farmers and the cooperative’s management team.