Three Focus Areas of USAID
- USAID attempts to provide farmers with alternative cash crops instead of coca and other drug related crops.
- Increased and better management of public service to people living in the rural Amazon areas of Peru.
- Management of natural resources in rural Peru.
Although these three focus areas seem to be positive, there are still many problems. First, many farmers in rural Peru live in extreme poverty, have to resort to child labor, and are sustenance farmers. Those who DO participate in illegal farming of coca and other drug related plants, although breaking the law, have the opportunity to do more than just sustain themselves. Basically, USAID needs to do more than transition the types of crops farmers sow, but also find ways to make farming a reasonable life-style for rural Peruvians. Secondly, the management of resources in Peru is rather ambiguous, because it does not disclose to whose benefit that resource management will go. A major complaint in Peru has been the "theft" of resources from rural communities, who are not allowed to profit off of materials found and extracted from their own lands. Furthermore, many companies have disregarded cultural or social wishes of Peruvian rural peoples, including land encroachment.