ABSTRACT

This chapter describes the development of drip irrigation in Peru. It analyses the Chavimochic irrigation system in the desert coast. This system is taken as an example of irrigation modernization and the expanding of agricultural frontier to illustrate the rationale and social and environmental effects of the use of drip irrigation in large-scale export agriculture in Peru. The Chavimochic irrigation system takes its water from the Santa River, which is canalised to neighbouring valleys. The water in the Rio Santa is increasingly being appropriated by different groups of users in and outside the river basin, causing increased competition and tension. The development of drip irrigation in Peru is concentrated on desert coast. The extremely dry coast receives water from rivers with high seasonal fluctuations, or intermittent rivers, that flow from the Andean mountains. In Latin America, drip irrigation is generally associated with highly commercial farming and on a large scale replacing surface irrigation in large-scale sugar cane and banana plantations.