The Decline of Food Security in Honduras and Why It Happened

Honduras is in a rough state right now when it comes to food security and availability. With a population of approximately 8 million people, the country’s government is having a hard time fighting and solving the problem of poverty and undernourished citizens. Nearly two-thirds of Honduras population live below the national poverty level, and a large portion don’t even have land. A new government took over in 2010 and has been slowly making progress, but Honduras is still considered highly vulnerable to food shortage. According to some sources, about a quarter of Honduras’ population is undernourished; this is over double the percentage that was calculated a few years ago in 2006.

There are several different factors that can be attributed to the decline of food security in Honduras, due in part either to uncontrollable natural causes, or because of Honduran citizens themselves. One of the biggest problems Hondurans face is the large number of natural disasters that tend to occur almost every year. In fact, Honduras is almost always included in the list of top ten countries vulnerable to natural disasters. Hurricanes are very prominent, and can have devastating effects on local Honduran communities and food systems. Hurricane Mitch inflicted heavy damage on Honduras in 1998, and has caused a serious problem in terms of water circulation; the southern part of Honduras gets little to no water cycles, and is continuously affected by drought and dry land. Other hurricanes have contributed to this problem, in 1997, 2001, 2007, and 2009. Additionally, Hondurans do not have solid emergency response plans, which have made the consequences of these natural disasters even more damaging than necessary. After these hurricanes happen, the Honduran government needs to be able to supply its citizens with water and nutritious food, which it has failed to do.

Another thing that greatly contributes to Honduras’ lack of proper food availability and distribution is the large number of inefficient farming systems set up in the country. More than 16% of Honduran land is agriculturally useful and has the potential to support and maintain beneficial farming systems. The only problem is, lots of this arable land has not been exploited and used simply because it does not fit the criteria for Honduras’ current farming system. This farming system opts for large plots of crops, a commercial orientation given to these crops, and are placed only in areas that are humid and rain fed. Because of this, many of the crops don’t even survive, which causes low yields and degraded quality. A large portion of land in the country is owned by big industrial landowners, who grow crops mainly for export and not for local consumption. Small time farmers are given very little help and recognition, despite the fact that they are providing for a lot of the food actually consumed by Hondurans. They face various problems, such as poor or no state of infrastructure, bad quality and availability of agricultural input, and low capacity and credit. There are no longer any public agricultural systems, and now only the large landowners can afford to pay for extension services. One of the problems smaller farmers face is being blocked out of the market by US import competition. This makes it extremely hard for these farmers to profit from their investments and to be stakeholders in the realm of food security in Honduras.

One of the best examples of Honduras’ dire need for a sound infrastructure is the country’s lack of simple irrigation. Even though irrigated land has an exponentially higher crop return rate versus rain fed crops, there are only 90,000 hectares of irrigated land in Honduras. The few agricultural systems that do utilize irrigation systems are not used to their full potential, and are diminished by poor distribution networks. Despite this, expansion of the irrigation systems has been in debate by the National Plan for the past 20 years, with no significant changes or improvements. The latest National Plan contains a push to expand the irrigated land for crops to 400,000 hectares, which would greatly help Hondurans in the production of high-quality crops and distribution to all areas of the country.

A variety of foods and food products are imported to Honduras on a daily basis. The Honduran government requires certification and proper inspection before allowing any imported food to reach consumers. Dairy, meat, poultry, food additives & preservatives, beverages, and other processes food are among the most commonly imported foods for Honduras. Dairy must meet health requirements and are always subject to price control. Meat that is imported to Honduras must go through a number of tests and inspections in order to be granted access. Some meat is restricted from being imported, either because it’s an endangered species, it’s from a certain country, or it possibly contains diseases that earn them restrictions. Virtually all meat must be transported in a temperature controlled cargo, and must be kept in a certain range of temperature during its entire trip. If the meat is not kept in these specific conditions, it is either destroyed, downgraded (fed to animals), or treated, depending on the extent of the damage. Almost all food and beverage imports must be accompanied by a shipment report, given to the Division of Food Control. The report (written in Spanish) must include information about the import such as departure/arrival dates, mode of transportation, port of entry, product type/quantity, sanitary registration number, and country of origin. Finally, the Honduran government forbids the import of sugar and rice from southeastern Asia, as well as the import of beef from South America. These are simply the current restrictions posted by the government, but they always have the potential to change based on a wide variety of factors.