National Lottery helps giant guinea pig farming

06 July 1998

National Lottery helps giant guinea pig farming

National Lottery funds have been given to a charity that wants to breed giant guinea pigs in Peru for food.

An award of £300,000 has been made to the Cusichaca Trust, based in Belbroughton, Worcestershire, which hopes to introduce new breeding methods to make the animals bigger. They will be used to improve the diet of subsistence farmers in the Peruvian Andes.

Guinea pigs are a delicacy in Peru. The Trust is run by Dr Ann Kendall, an archaeologist who visits Peru every year.

It is part of a project to reverse depopulation, deforestation and soil erosion in the Ayachucho and Apurimac mountain areas of Peru.