Peru’s Minister of Production Pedro Olaechea yesterday launched the National Program for Innovation in Fisheries and Aquaculture (PNIPA), whose main task will be to co-finance the best research and innovation projects in these productive fields at national level.
“For the first time, Peru will have a program that will be like a laboratory of innovative projects that will serve to increase the competitiveness and productivity of the fisheries and aquaculture sector,” he said.
Until 2021, the PNIPA will co-finance a total of 2,000 subprojects in fisheries and aquaculture, selected through public calls at national level: 261 will be research projects and 1,723 technical assistance and training projects.
Minister Olaechea said that to this end there is a fund of approximately USD 120 million, of which USD 40 million comes from a loan from the World Bank (WB) and USD 80 million from the Peruvian Government.
“Our goal is to place Peru in 2021 among the first three aquaculture producers in Latin America and turn it into an important global competitor in fishing for direct human consumption,” he added.
Production head announced that for the remainder of this year and all of 2018 a budget of more than PEN 80 million (USD 24.6 million) will be allocated to finance research, development and innovation projects (R+D+i ) in fisheries and aquaculture.
In that sense, a call began yesterday for the first contest that will have eight subcategories for the fisheries and aquaculture sector: applied research and experimental development, adaptive research, extension and capacity building.
Likewise, in order to release the bidding rules, a series of macro regional workshops will be held until March 2018. The proposals that will have access to financing will be announced next May.
Olaechea stressed that the beneficiaries will be economic agents involved in the entire value chain of fisheries and aquaculture: private companies, universities, institutes, researchers, fishermen’s associations and artisanal aquaculturists, among others.
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