PERU: Miracle Economy Has Bypassed The Underclass.

LATIMES / T. Wilkinson /

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In far southern Peru, the city of Ica provides the USA with fresh asparagus and grapes.

The unemployment rate there is near zero.

Consumerism is booming.

But the benefits from a prosperous ag. sector have not solved all the area's ills.

Disease has increased and education has declined as the number of jobs has grown.

Many professionals work in packing plants and those of high-school-age "go to the asparagus" (work the fields) instead of studying.

PERU: Water Shortages Threaten Agriculture Growth.

REUTERS/ By Emily Schmall/
      The World Bank and its International Finance Corporation are involved in projects in northern Peru to use water from the Amazon to irrigate fields for cash crops.
      Peru is the world's top asparagus exporter, shipping $389 million in 2009, and the third-largest producer of artichokes. Its farm sector has grown rapidly, helped by laws allowing bigger land holdings and free trade agreements with the United States and Asian countries.      But water is becoming scarcer as Andean glaciers retreat.