San Pedro Department
Northern department where subsistence agriculture and land concentration generate persistent poverty and campesino land reform movements.
San Pedro represents rural Paraguay's persistent poverty—a northern department where subsistence agriculture predominates, land concentration generates conflict, and development indicators lag national averages despite being one of the country's largest departments by area. The contrast with export-oriented eastern departments highlights Paraguay's regional inequality.
Smallholder farming sustains most San Pedro residents, producing for household consumption rather than export markets. Limited mechanization, poor road access, and weak connection to commodity supply chains leave farmers dependent on local markets and vulnerable to crop failure. This creates conditions where campesino movements demanding land reform maintain strong presence.
Land concentration has intensified as larger operations acquire smallholdings, displacing families to urban peripheries or frontier zones. The department's population has grown more slowly than national averages as out-migration drains working-age residents seeking opportunity in Asuncion, Ciudad del Este, or Argentina.
Some cattle ranching has expanded into San Pedro, converting forest and pasture to beef production for export. Yet the department lacks the scale, infrastructure, and cooperative organization that enabled Boqueron's transformation. By 2026, expect continued poverty relative to southern departments, land conflict persisting without resolution, and slow agricultural modernization constrained by capital scarcity and infrastructure deficits.