Between persistence and transformation: the small producers in El Salvador

Abstract

El Salvador is the most densely populated country on the American continent, with a strong increase in the population living in urban centers or migrating to foreign countries. After the long internal armed conflict (from the late seventies to the first decade of the twentieth century), the weight of agriculture has been reduced both in relation to the national economy and in in terms of its importance in generating foreign exchange in foreign trade as well.

However, so far in the current century, the productive drive of small producers of basic grains has been important and it becomes evident in the increased sown areas, yields and production in crops such as corn and beans, a trend that responds in part to government programs of support consisting in the delivery of input packages and seed improvement.

The characteristics of agricultural producers are presented, particularly of small producers in terms of sex, age groups, land tenure and geographical distribution; a significant increase is shown in the number of farmers that mostly do not own the land and develop different occupational strategies for income generation in both rural and urban areas.

Finally, some factors are explained that would be acting on the trends of the persistence of small production, including demographic factors, consequences of international migration, improvements in the yields of some items, and the influence of the demand for agricultural land for expansion. The study is mainly based on special tabulations of the Multiple Purpose Household Survey of 2014.