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The Republic of Honduras is the second poorest country in Central America. It is a lower middle-income country with persistent poverty and inequality challenges and a per-capita income of about US$1,880 in 2010. 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. It ranks 121 out of 187 countries on the United Nations Development Programme’s 2011 Human Development Index – a comparative measure of life expectancy, literacy, education and standards of living for countries worldwide.

The country’s population of approximately 8 million people is divided evenly between urban and rural areas. However, poverty is essentially a rural problem. Poverty in the country affects 60 per cent of the population, while 36 per cent live under extreme poverty conditions. In rural areas, these figures rise to 63 per cent and 50 per cent respectively.

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. Lack of access to land and basic services, a vulnerable environment and low agricultural productivity are among the problems at the root of poverty in the country. A lack of employment opportunities in rural areas has been a major driving force behind the country’s high level of emigration.

About 28 per cent of the country is agricultural land, and the agricultural sector employs about 39 per cent of the population. Most of the agricultural area is dedicated to the production of low-profit crops such as bananas, plantains, rice, maize and beans. In the hillside regions, where small-scale farmers produce basic grains, slopes are often steep and difficult to cultivate. This type 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 also 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.

Minifundistas, or subsistence farmers, make up about 70 per cent of farming families. With little access to land, they depend on remittances sent from family members living elsewhere and on finding off-farm employment. Small-scale farmers have access to more land and generally produce basic food crops, but many are forced to seek off-farm work in order to survive.

Rural women, young people and indigenous groups are among the poorest and most vulnerable in Honduras. Women who are heads of households make up about 9 per cent of the country’s smallholder farmers. The income of households headed by women in hillside areas is about 30 per cent less than that of households headed by men.

Honduras has nine recognized indigenous and African American minority groups comprising about 6.5 per cent of the population. Communities of indigenous origin generally either work as subsistence farmers or temporary rural workers. Many of them have no land. Poverty rates are substantially higher among indigenous communities. An estimated 71 per cent of indigenous peoples live below the poverty line.
 

Source: IFAD