Peru Country Book

Last update: October 2025

This page contains information about some of the data available in the FEWS NET Data Explorer (FDE) for Peru. This is not a comprehensive guide.

For information about using the filters and fields for specific topics in the FDE, see Explore Data.

Summary table

Acknowledgements

The Peru crop dataset found in the FEWS NET Data Warehouse, and this Country Book publication are a joint effort of the United States Department of State-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) and the Stockholm Environment Institute via HarvestStat Latin America and the Caribbean (HarvestStat LAC). HarvestStat LAC provides a dataset of subnational crop data for 26 countries across the Americas in formats that are interoperable with the data in the FEWS Data Warehouse and ready for academic analysis. For additional information, please refer to the HarvestStat vision paper, the HarvestStat website, and the FEWS NET Data Explorer Knowledge Base.

Country food security context

Statistical reporting units

Peru usually uses administrative units as their statistical reporting units. In Peru, there are four levels to the country’s administrative unit hierarchy. Statistical data for Peru is generally most available for the Admin 1, Admin 2 and Admin 4-levels.

Admin 1: Department/Departamento (or Region)

Since the Regionalization Law of 2002, Peru has 24 departmentos, plus two provincias (see below) acting with the authority of departamentos/regiones, the Metropolitan Authority of Lima, and the Constitutional Province of Callao, for a total of 26 Admin 1-level entities. Departamentos are governed by what are called regional governments, and are often referred to as regions.

Admin 2: Province/Provincia

The second administrative level (Admin 2) of Peru is called a provincia. There are 196 provincias in Peru, for an average of seven per departamento/region. The Constitutional Province of Callao has only one provincia, and Ancash Departamento has the most, at twenty. 

Admin 3: District/Distrito

The third-level administrative entity in Peru is the distrito. It is a subdivision of a province, and there are more than 1,800 of them in the country. 

Admin 4: Populated center/Centro poblado

Centros poblados are the fourth-level administrative subdivisions and the lowest administrative subdivision of the country. They are subdivisions of districts. As of 2022, there were at least 2,859 populated centers in the country, which are administered by municipalities/municipalidades headed by a mayor elected every four years.

Evolution of Administrative and Crop Statistic Reporting Units

In 1980, the last of Peru’s 26 Admin 1-level (Department or Region) entities, Ucayali Department, was created. Since then, they have not changed their number or boundaries (except for minor re-alignments of a border). 

During the same period, the number and boundaries of Admin 2-level Provinces changed in at least 15 years, generally due to population growth and leading to the split of existing provinces to create new ones. From 151 provinces in 1980, the number of provinces increased to 184 in 1990, 194 in 2002, and finally, 196 in 2014, where the number stands today. 

Crop data

Explore our crop data.

Peru is a global center for crop development, noted as one of the world's original Vavilov centers of domestication, where agriculture first arose. The nation's immense biodiversity is rooted in its highly varied climate, altitude, and ecosystems, which have allowed for the domestication and diversification of thousands of unique plant species. 

The Andean region of Peru is one of the world's most important centers for the domestication of numerous plant species.

• Peru is the birthplace of the potato, which was first domesticated in the Andes between 8000 and 5000 BC. There are over 4,000 distinct types found in Peru. 

• Quinoa, an ancient grain, originated in the Andean region, and Peru is one of its largest global producers.

• More than 50 different varieties of maize are grown in Peru, with many varieties adapted to the unique climatic conditions of the mountains.

• The five species of domesticated Capsicum peppers, which come in a variety of colors, shapes, and pungency, are all found in Peru.

• The greatest genetic diversity of cacao is found in the Amazonian regions of Peru, where archaeological artifacts show evidence of its early importance over 5,000 years ago.

Crop estimate data sources

Peru’s crop statistics are generated each year by the Ministerio de Desarrollo Agrario y Riego, MIDAGRI (Ministry of Agricultural Development and Irrigation), in a national survey called the Encuesta Nacional Agropecuaria (National Agricultural Survey). The survey covers all agricultural areas of the country at the Populated Center, Admin 4-level, of aggregation. 

Annual crop statistics based upon this survey, in SPSS .dta and .csv format, are available for the years between 2014 and the current year on the PERÚ Instituto Nacional de Estadística e Informática website (see Superficie cochesada, sembrada, produccion y destino de los cultivos cochesados).

The website for the Government of Peru also has the same annual crop statistics for 2016-2022 in an Excel format and monthly crop statistics for the last 5-6 years.

The country’s annual crop statistics for years before 2014 were found in annual agricultural yearbooks (Anuario Estadistico de la Produccion Agricola y Ganadera) published by the Sistema Integrado Estadistica Agraria (SIEA) of the Ministerio de Agricultura y Riego (MAR) or were published on websites that no longer exist. 

Crop reporting units

Peru’s crop statistics are reported using the Admin 1 (Department), Admin 2 (Province), and Admin 4-level units.

Year and season definition

Year definition

As mentioned above, Peru’s annual agricultural cycle is almost continuous, without the strong seasonality that features so large in many countries. Official agricultural reporting handles this situation in a relatively unique manner. An annual crop survey report is dated with a single year annotation, but the crop data found within it reports the variable Area Sown for a 12-month period running between August and July, often with a two year annotation. The variables Area Harvested, Yield, and Production are reported on a monthly basis for the Gregorian calendar year. 

Season definitions

While there is not a single uniform cropping season in Peru, the agricultural calendar is based on different crops and regions, each with their own annual cycle. For example, the Andean planting season typically runs from September to October, while major rice harvests are concentrated from March to July. 

Here are some cropping year and harvest periods for key Peruvian crops:

Primary crops

Peruvian crops for which crop statistics are available in the FEWS NET Data Warehouse are shown in the following table.

Production systems

Although some recent sources of Peru’s crop statistics do collect production system information (e.g. irrigated crops, large farms, etc.), that information is not currently in the crop statistics in the Data Warehouse. 

Crop statistics context

Peruvian crop statistics found in the FEWS NET Data Warehouse cover the period between 1982 and the present, at annual timesteps, and at a mixture of Admin 1 and Admin 2-levels of reporting. The Admin 1-level statistics are without gaps in time, whereas Admin 2 statistics have not been found for all years.

Notable features of many of the key sources of national crop statistics are:

• Monthly planting, harvesting and production data for many crops

• Annual crop surveys covering approximately 150 crops, which include temporary, semi-permanent, and permanent crops

• Other socio-economic and production system information collected at the time of the crop survey

Methodology

The 2022-2026 plan for producing national agricultural statistics, including methodologies used, is described in a 2022 Ministry of Agricultural Development and Irrigation (MIDAGRI) document “Plan Estadistico Agrario Nacional, 2022-2026 del Sistema Integrado de Estadistica Agraria (SIEA)”, available in the FEWS NET Data Warehouse.