Rural Development Policies and Sustainable Land Use in the ...

38 CHAPTER 4
Table 4.1 Natural capital
Land distribution
Percentage of land Percentage of land Percentage of land
size distribution size distribution for size distribution
Landholding Percentage for households households that earn for households
size of all sample that earn > US$1.00/ between US$0.50 and that earn < US$0.50/
(manzanas) households person per day US$1.00/person per day person per day
< 2 mz 21.2 6.4 13.4 24.2
2–5 mz 29.5 36.7 33.9 31.9
5–10 mz 19.0 11.1 16.0 20.5
10–20 mz 11.4 2.9 8.3 12.9
20–50 mz 8.7 30.7 6.3 6.4
> 50 mz 7.0 12.2 22.1 4.1
Column category 100 10.9 12.8 76.3
as percentage
of total sample
Climate and land quality
Average for Average for households Average for
households that earn between households heads
Sample that earn > US$1.00/ US$0.50 and US$1.00/ that earn < US$0.50/
average person per day person per day person per day
Annual rainfall (mm) 1,645 1,765 1,619 1,634
Soil fertility a 2,846 3,136 2,980 2,790
Altitude (feet) 2,231 1,686 2,394 2,274
a
Soil fertility was approximated by potential maize yields (see footnote 34 in Chapter 3 for details).
> US$1.00/person/day is less than half of
that of desperately poor households (0.45
vs. 1.0).
Education levels are very low: on average
household members have less than three
years of formal schooling (Table 4.2). In
Honduras, although school enrollment keeps
on increasing, dropout rates remain stubbornly
high (World Bank 2000). With limited
educational progress over time (younger
household members tend to have a little
more schooling than their parents), the
human asset base in rural Honduras has
stayed virtually stagnant between 1993 and
2003 (World Bank 2004a).
Even though all poor households reported
having members living outside the
household, richer households have more
members who migrated than poorer households
(Table 4.3).
Finally, ethnic minorities (i.e., nonmestizos)
account for about 15 percent of the
total population in Honduras, and our sample
is representative in that respect (Table
4.4). With the notable exception of the Garifunas
(fishing communities on the northern
Atlantic coast), our data are consistent
with other studies that show that people
belonging to ethnic minorities tend to have
lower incomes.
Physical Assets
Physical assets include fixed agricultural
assets such as machinery and equipment,
livestock, vehicles, and housing. On average,
households own about US$2,500 in
physical assets. There exists a clear negative
relationship between the value of
total physical assets and depth of poverty:
non-extremely poor households, extremely