Land Distribution and Agricultural Markets in Honduras
Honduras is a small Central American country bordering El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. With a total territory of little over 112.000 square kilometers, the country is somewhat larger than Tennessee. Geographically, coastal plains and a mountainous interior dominate Honduras. Similarly, the country has an important Caribbean coastline of almost 670 kilometers and a smaller Pacific coastline of less than 165 kilometers. With a total population of about 8.9 million citizens, Honduras is one of the most populous countries in Central America. Simultaneously, the majority of Hondurans are under the age of 24 years and some 55% of the total population lives in an urban setting.
Currently, Honduras’ annual gross domestic product (GDP) is of approximately US$40 billion. Furthermore, its national economy has experienced positive growth upwards of 3.0% in recent years. Unfortunately, however, about 1 million Hondurans suffer from undernourishment, which contributes to the issue of insecurity within the country. The Honduran national economy is divided into 14% agriculture, 27% manufacturing, and 59% services. However, the agriculture industry utilizes some 29% of the national territory, while another 45% is forested. Likewise, the Honduran agricultural industry employs about 39% of the national labor force, while manufacturing employs some 21% and services employ another 40%.
In terms of natural resources, Honduras has fish, hydropower, timber, and minerals, such as gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, and iron. Within manufacturing, Honduras’ industry is focused on sugar refining, coffee processing, apparel, wood products, and cigar production. Meanwhile, the country’s agricultural industry has as main products bananas, coffee, citrus, corn, African palm, beef, lumber, shrimp, tilapia, lobster, and vegetables. In terms of trade, Honduras is a full member of the United States-Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR), which has boosted the country’s economy, trade, and domestic industry since coming into full force in 2006. Similarly, Honduras takes part in the Central American Integration System (SICA), which seeks to foment economic and political cooperation as well as harmonize trade regulations and agricultural standards for the region. Today, Honduras’ main trade partners are the United States, Guatemala, China, El Salvador, and Germany, amongst others. This article explores the status of land exploitation and grain production in Honduras.
Land Distribution and Agricultural Markets in Honduras
Throughout recent years, the average per capita protein intake of animal origin amongst the Honduran population has been of 25 grams daily. Meanwhile, cereals, roots, and tubers supply about 47% of the average food energy intake in Honduras. Simultaneously, land use in Honduras has evolved enormously throughout the last half century. In 1961, pastures and meadows in the country covered some 1.5 million hectares, while arable land covered another 1.3 million hectares and permanent crops accounted for approximately 185.000 hectares. In 2014, pastures and meadows in Honduras accounted for little over 1.7 million hectares, while arable land represented about 1 million hectares and permanent crops covered almost 460.000 hectares.
Likewise, the domestic cereals market has more than doubled its output throughout the last half century. In 1961, Honduras devoted little over 300.000 hectares of land to the production of cereals and produced approximately 320.000 metric tons annually. Meanwhile, in 2014, the country devoted almost 406.000 hectares of land to cereals production and yielded some 700.000 metric tons.