FACTORTIERRA

CHULUCANAS, Peru – When the 2017 Census published its results, the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (INEI as its initials in Spanish) revealed that the population of Piura Department had surpassed 1.85 million inhabitants. Estimates for 2023 consider that this figure is around two million.   The same 2017 Census showed that out of the entire population of the department, 125,000 people identified as Afro- descendants .   Statistically, Piura is the second most populous department in Peru. At that time, another indicator was added: it has the second largest Afro-Peruvian community , with three out of every 20 inhabitants being Afro-descendants, speaking in purely Piura terms. Proportionally, this means three out of every 20 inhabitants in the second most populous department of Peru are Afro-descendants.       Of the entire Afro-descendant community in Piura, 47% are women .   According to NGO Kaikuna , Afro-descendant wo...

Photographs provided by AgroRedNorte.   Students of Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes School, at Segunda y Cajas Farmer Community (El Carmen de la Frontera District) and Innova Páramos Association, basedon Totoras Village (Pacaipampa District) presented two  filter drinks made of lanché ( Myrcianthes myrsinoides )and ushpa ( Vaccinium foribundum ),looking to blast the market of functional & nutraceutical drinks.   The products are the result of a participative investigation proposing to conserve ecosystems paramos and cloud forests at the Andes of Piura Department by using medicinal and fruit native species to make filter beverages. It has been promoted by Muqui Networ k and advised scientifically by AgroRedNorte .   They’ve been made by the own locals, this is used as a strategy to conserve the Andean highland ecosystems that are part of their territory.  The investigation is already as longer as than over a decade, it’s promoted by agroRed...

The centennial building, in the edge of Sullana Province, seems to be counting its last hours.       The following photographs show the structural damages as found on February 9 th , 2024, distributed by FACTORTIERRA.   SOJO, Peru – The house that was the headquarters of the estate managed by Miguel Checa Checa (tambograndé, Jul. 5, 1861 – Piura City, Oct. 19, 1935), that extended across 111,192 acres (like 10 Jersey Cities) along actual Piura Department , is bringing down in pieces.   It has left vulnerable because of three extraordinary El Niño events (1983, 1997, 2017), two strong and nearby earthquakes (2021, 2022), and the lack of maintenance.   According to Carlos Checa Leigh, grand-grandson of Miguel Checa Checa and actual manager of the house, one of the major threats is the indifference of authorities and citizens. Maybe not at all. As much as FACTTORTIERRA learned, , there are cultural collectives interested in participati...