php - Comparing WP dates -

i´m trying show posts meta field "fecha_inicio" contains younger date format "dd/mm/yyyy" 1 variable has date same format "dd/mm/yyyy". code next one:

$args = array(     'posts_per_page' => 30,     'post_type' => 'programa',     'paged' => get_query_var( 'paged' ),     'meta_query' => array(         array(             'key'   =>  'fecha_inicio',             'value' =>  $fecha,             'type'  => 'date',             'compare'=> '<'         ),     ), ); 

this doesn´t return me anything. have posts example date 10/10/2016 , 01/01/2016, , i´m trying query date in middle 05/05/2016, , it´s not returning me

i have printed variable , shows correct date, , other dates correct on database, dunno missing here.

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also field has same name, in table post_meta

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trying show sql query

select sql_calc_found_rows   wp_posts.id   wp_posts inner join   wp_postmeta on   (     wp_posts.id = wp_postmeta.post_id   )   1 = 1 and(     (       wp_postmeta.meta_key = 'fecha_inicio' , cast(wp_postmeta.meta_value date) > '01/05/2095'     )   ) , wp_posts.post_type = 'programa' and(     wp_posts.post_status = 'publish' or wp_posts.post_status = 'private'   ) group   wp_posts.id order   wp_posts.post_date desc limit 0, 30