We are not against carrots; they taste good and are good for your eye sight. But unfortunately, this Quechua farmer will only make pennies with these carrots. Cumbersome harvesting methods, mostly by hand, provide a family with many days of work but there are hardly any returns worth speaking of.
In case the woman falls ill and requires professional attention, the state hospital will immediately give her a bill that goes way beyond what her carrots can provide.
The people living in the Peruvian Andes need modern and improved crop production methods along with fair wages. And long-term, to shield against illness they will need a functional health insurance system. Moreover, the Quechua Indians of the Andes need to develop their economy in order to support such a system in a sustainable fashion.
This is a long way down the road but everything starts with a first step.
