Powered by IFAD

Rural poverty in Honduras

Honduras is the third poorest country in Latin America and the second poorest country in Central America. Although the government has achieved a degree of economic stability since 2000, progress has not resulted in improved living conditions or reduced poverty for the country's huge proportion of poor people. Poverty levels have remained essentially unchanged since 1997.

The population is evenly divided between urban and rural areas, but poverty is essentially a rural problem. About 74 per cent of the country's poor people, and 86 per cent of the extremely poor, live in rural areas.

Who and where are Honduras' poor rural people?

The country's poor rural people include farmers, rural women, landless people and labourers, some of whom belong to ethnic and indigenous groups.

Farmers include minifundistas and small-scale farmers. The minifundistas have little, if any, access to land. They are highly dependent on remittances sent from family members living elsewhere, and on whatever income they can make by working in nearby cities. Minifundistas make up about 70 per cent of farming families. Small-scale farmers have access to more land and generally produce basic food crops that are consumed by their family. Yet many are forced to seek off-farm work in order to survive.

Landless people and labourers are involved minimally, if at all, in agricultural production. At most they plant one or two crops and may have one or two animals. They earn most of their income by working as labourers or as seasonal migrant workers. An estimated 300,000 households are landless or near-landless.

Women and indigenous groups are among the poorest people in Honduras. Women who are heads of households make up about 9 per cent of the country's small farmers. They work long hours and bear the double burden of working the land and taking care of their families, in which there are an average of seven children. The income of households headed by women in hillside areas is about 30 per cent less than that of households headed by men, and they receive less than half the level of government transfers. As many as 70 per cent of rural women are illiterate, and only 20 per cent have had secondary level schooling.

Honduras has nine recognized indigenous and African American minority groups comprising about 70,000 families, or about 6.5 per cent of the population. Communities of indigenous origin include small subsistence farmers and temporary rural workers. Many of them are landless. Indigenous peoples have substantially higher poverty rates. An estimated 71 per cent of indigenous peoples live below the poverty line.

Where are the poor rural people?

Poverty is prevalent in central hillside areas in the interior highlands of Honduras , which are home to about 75 per cent of the rural population, including indigenous groups. The highest concentration of rural poverty is found in the western region, which also has the greatest concentration of extreme poverty.

Why are they poor?

Lack of access to land, together with fragile social conditions, a vulnerable environment and low agricultural productivity are among the problems at the root of poverty in the country. Seven out of ten peasant families are multifundistas who have little or no access to land. Land fragmentation is extreme, and many of those who own land have only tiny plots to cultivate. Most small farmers have less than 5 ha of land, which is not enough to feed and support their families.

Incomes for farmers have not increased over the past 30 years. Most of the country's agricultural area is dedicated to the production of low-profit crops, and the area of arable land under irrigation is relatively small. In the rural sector the government's adjustments in public expenditures have led to a drastic reduction in services for poor farmers.

In the hillside regions, where small-scale farmers produce basic grains, slopes are often steep and difficult to cultivate. This kind of terrain is also extremely vulnerable to erosion and much of it has become severely degraded. Productivity has decreased as a result.

The country is prone to hurricanes and flooding, particularly in the areas close to the Caribbean coast. Hurricane Mitch, which hit Honduras in late 1998, caused widespread destruction of basic economic and social infrastructure, rural housing and food crops.

Source: IFAD