La agricultura de los Andes venezolanos: De la intensificación a la crisis, 1960-2019

Abstract

The Venezuelan Andes constituted one of the poorest regions of the country during the 1950s-1960s. This region was affected by oil exploitation and rapid urbanization. However, with the introduction of irrigated horticulture at that time, the Andean production systems were radically changed with the development of crops of high commercial value. For several decades, the Venezuelan Andes were an important source of enrichment and a new growth pole for the country. From the 1990s, however, with the intensification of horticultural activities, problems began to manifest themselves in both socio-economic and environmental terms. This process was accentuated from 2013 with the economic, political and social crisis that continues to affect Venezuela. Today the country's Andean farmers face several obstacles (fuel shortages, dollarization of the economy, loss of consumer purchasing power, high input prices) that make agricultural investment particularly risky. In a context of food shortages and hyperinflation, subsistence farming is returning to the Venezuelan Andes, allowing farmers to produce enough food for themselves and their families.