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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2009
For approximately the last two-and-a-half decades it has been a stated goal of both Honduran and U.S. policy to improve the welfare of the Honduran people, both directly through the provision of services and indirectly through the promotion of economic development. The need is great; Honduras has the lowest per capita GNP in Central America ($660 in 1984) and the highest population growth rate (3.4%). It also has the second highest percentage of its population living in rural areas (61%). Consequently, rural development has been a primary concern of development programs.
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63 U.S. Agency for International Development (1982), op. cit., p. 6.
64 Ibid., p. 5.
65 Ibid., pp. 1–13, in 1981, the United States initiated a five-year $9.55 million program in Honduras to help coffee growers, including to combat coffee rust.
66 Tendler, op. cit., p. 8.
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