Peru's Asparagus Valley Running Dry

Peru's Asparagus Valley Running Dry Asparagus, once a delicacy in the US that gourmands looked forward to every late spring, is now widely available year PERU round. The Ica Valley, in the dry, coastal belt of Peru, is one of the few places in the world where high-quality asparagus can be produced year-round. Lima | Tropical rain fores Peru started commercially growing asparagus in the mid 1990s to support its economy, with support from the US and the World Bank. Mountain rain forest Mountain tall grass/scrub Mountain short grass Now, years of large-scale farming of water-intensive asparagus crop is depleting Ica's aquifer. Coastal Desert and scrub (Ica) 174 Million Pounds of Asparagus imported by USA from Peru. Top importers of Peruvian Asparagus USA (174 million pounds) X the Netherlands (17.2 million pounds) X********* Spain (16.6 million pounds) 93 Million Cubic Meters Water is the US water footprint resulting from the import of asparagus from Peru. It is enough to fill 37,200 Olympic-size swimming pools. More than 317 Million Cubic Meters/Year is the water needed from the aquifer in Ica valley, Peru, to grow the imported asparagus. The water demand of the crop has overtaxed the aquifer. The net flow of water through a Ica Valley aquifer fell from an estimated surplus of 26 million m lyr in 2002 to an estimated deficit of between 65 to 244 milliðn m /yr in V v v v v v v 2008. 2002 2008 Map not drawn to scale Source:"Drop by Drop" - Progressio ; UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Illustration: Manya Gupta The graphic shows 2008 data.