David and Goliath in the cotton sector: Midagri and the path to poverty

Written by: Víctor Vásquez Villanueva, executive director of the Agrarian Producer Defense Office The situation of the cotton sector is the living image of a biblical conflict in the modern era: David versus Goliath, where the state bureaucracy, represented by the Ministry of Agrarian Development and Irrigation (Midagri), paradoxically favors the "Goliath" of the large textile power groups, condemning the "David" to poverty and abandonment. This cruel irony has been exacerbated by recent decisions and statements, when the former minister Ángel Manero prioritized mining over agriculture in water use, a ruling that exposes the indifference towards the two million producers of family agriculture, who continue to harvest misery. The farce of rescue and historical abandonment The problem goes beyond a former minister; it is an endemic plague of public management. Under the facade of "Revaluing Peruvian cotton," the lie and ineptitude are repeated. The promise of the Competitiveness ...