Economic geographies

Keywords

Economic geographies

... look at the economic characteristics of one or various places over time.

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Local economic characteristics

Rural communities in northern Peru are considered subsistence economies.

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This means they produce food and other products for their own consumption, before selling excess for profit.

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The most common economic activities are fishing, farming, and livestock farming.

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What is the immediate economic impact of El Niño?

• Injuries, loss of life, and loss of housing mean that people can’t work.
• Agricultural land is flooded, animals are killed.
• Infrastructure damage.
• Money is focused on reconstruction, rather than daily needs or investments.
• Limited transport for imports from and exports to other regions.

What is the long-term economic impact of El Niño?

How are these activities economic?

Next up...

We are going to look at how the El Niño phenomenon impacts the production of natural resources (and their by-products) in the area by comparing “before” and “after” measures.

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But first: understanding box plots (relatively)

Understanding box plots (advanced) 

Reading a box plot:�Irrigated area tilapia catch during El Niño

Fishing

Water fills the lakes, increasing fish populations.

Agriculture

Waters irrigate agricultural land, and sediment from river overflow fertilises the land.

Livestock

Livestock increases as grazing land is irrigated.

What happens to these products?

Let’s look at the value chain: the steps through which a raw material becomes a finished product.

Production

Destinations

1. Own consumption
2. Local sale
3. Sale in city markets
4. Stockpilers (intermediaries)

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Intermediaries collect the raw materials from producers and sell them. For example, vans will pick up fish recently caught from the lakes and transport them to the cities for sale in markets.

Consumption

How does El Niño impact the destination of products?

External sale, and the use of intermediaries, increases when production increases.

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Own consumption also decreases because individuals will have more money to buy resources rather than needing to provide them.

Challenges

Fishermen and farmers face multiple challenges with fishing and farming based on El Niño rainfall.

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These include:

1. Transport to and from the lakes is difficult because of a lack of roads.
2. Fishing and agricultural materials are costly.
3. Political requirements make it difficult to fish and sell freely.

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Resource management

The biggest challenge faced by fishermen is that the local lakes are not politically “official” because they are temporary.

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As a result, laws for fishing in the sea are applied to the lakes. This limits in-land fishing because fishermen can only catch fish within a certain size range.

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However, by prohibiting the catch of smaller or larger fish, there are large quantities of fish that are left in the lakes when they dry up.

Worker associations

Residents working in the same areas and economic activities often form worker associations. These are groups of workers who join to advocate for better working conditions.

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For example, with fishermen in the temporary lakes, the associations try to ask political authorities to officially recognise the lakes and create regulations different to those for fishing in the sea.

Conclusions 

1. Rural communities in Peru rely on farming and fishing for subsistence.
2. While immediate impacts of El Niño are negative for economic activities, they are positive in the long term.
3. Fishing, farming, livestock farming, and by-products increase with El Niño events.
4. The products are consumed both locally and on wider scales.
5. Resource management is a significant challenge for communities trying to take advantage of raw materials.

Data sources: 

Ivan Gomez and Evelyn Inguil: Fundación para el Desarrollo Agrario (Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, 2021).

Tania Mendo (University of St Andrews, 2021).