AG'RIEULTURAL RESOURCES AND FOOD SUPPLY IN EL SALVADOR Thesis for the Dagmar of M S. MlCHMN STATE UNIV‘iRSi'I‘Y JOHN F; ANNEGERS 1967 AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES AND FOOD SUPPLY IN EL SALVADOR By John F. Annegers A THESIS Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE . “3 . diff rower, 4‘57 0017!)75M / Department of Geography ‘1967 TABLE OF LIST OF TABLES . . . . . . LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS . . INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . Chapter CONTENTS I. NATURAL SETTING AND RESOURCE BASE. II. DEMOCRAPEY . . . . III. IV. DOMESTIC FOOD PRODUCTION AND SUPPLY V. NUTRITIONAL LEVEL SUIJEIARY o o o o o o o o o SELECTED LIST OF REFERENCES THE AGRICULTURAL EXPORT ECONOMY 10 17 34 56 61 63 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. LIST OF TABLES Resource Base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Vital Statistics 1961—1963 . . . . . . . . . . . Urban Rural Vital Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . The Coffee Export Economy . .-. . . . . . . . . . . Coffee Production by Land Holding . . . . . . . . . Cotton Production by Land Holding . . . . . . . . . Shrimp Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Exports by Value in 1000's of $ (undeflated) . . . Areal Equivalent of Export Crops . . . . . . . . . Grain Availability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Food Staple Production 1955-1964 . . . . . . . . . Food Staple Production 1961 . . . . . . . . . . . . Land Tenure - 1950 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Swine........................ Imported Foodstuffs in Metric Tons . . . . . . . . Imported Vegetable Foods . . . . . . . . . . . . . Trade Acreage of Animal Products . . . . . . . . . Daily Per Capita Consumption . . . . . . . . . . . Average Daily Per Capita Food Consumption Comparison _ii_ Page 11 14 20 22 27 31 32 33 35 37 39 43 50 51 52 54 57 58 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure Page 1. Map of Population Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 2. Map of Agricultural Land Use in El Salvador . . . . . . . . 55 -iii- CHAPTER I NATURAL SETTING AND RESOURCE BASE NATURAL SETTING Nature endowed El Salvador with potentially productive but easily imbalanced topographic, climatic, and pedological conditions. The New Jersey sized country is characterized by three major topographic regions-- the northern and eastern highlands, the central meseta, and the coastal plain. The northern and eastern highlands, by far the greater of the three regions, are well weathered tertiary mountains, bisected by a few river basins. Elevations vary from 200 to 2000 meters while soils are predominantly shallow and rocky, interspersed with small areas of allu- vial lowlands. The central meseta, formed by recent volcanic activity, runs through the country, but is broken by a few river basins. The gen- erally rolling t0pography of the central meseta ranges from 600 to 2000 meters in elevation and possesses rich volcanic soils. The Pacific coastal plain varies in width from a few miles to ten to twenty miles along river basins. Most of El Salvador is dominated by rolling hills to quite mountainous topography excepting a few inter-mountain basins, flood plains, and parts of the Pacific coast. Since only few mountain peaks reach over 1800 meters, virtually all of El Salvador lies within the tierra caliente. In San Salvador the monthly temperature varies only three degrees around a mean of 23.l°C (73.6°F). The major climatic factor is the nation's monsoon-like seasonal rainfall distribution. The onshore winds from the Pacific bring moist air from the end of May to November. During this period the country receives -4- -5- nearly all of its 1800 mm. annual rainfall. During the dry season, late November to May, the northerly winds bring practically no rain. Such distinct wet and dry seasons have profound influences upon the uses of El Salvador's agricultural resources. RESOURCE BASE E1 Salvador's midyear 1966 population estimates of 3,156,000 and the total country's area of 21,393 square kilometers yield an overall population density of 155 persons per square kilometer. This raw figure, however, gives only a general picture of the agricultural resource base. The 1961 agricultural census of El Salvador classified 58.7% of the country as in agricultural production, which was distributed in the fol- lowing manner: TABLE 1. RESOURCE BASE cultivatos permanentes { 160,000 Arable Land ' tierra de labranza 488,000 naturales i 503,000 Pastures e. sembrados 101,000 Total ’ 1,252,000 3All figures in hectares bMinisterio De Economia, Segundo ggn§g_Agropecuario-l96l, Datos Preliminares, San Salvador, 1963. Each of these four classifications of agricultural land use is the result of the natural landscape, past, and present land use. In addition, the present classifications are still in a state of flux and have significant variations within themselves. A short appraisal of the natural setting and the historical evolution of E1 Salvador's agricultural land is now in order. —6- Before the Spanish conquest, nearly the entire area was a tropical wet-dry season forest. It is estimated that about 130,000 Indians lived within the present boundaries of El Salvador on the eve of the Spanish 1 conquest. It is now assumed that this small indigenous Indian popula- tion of shifting cultivators maintained a neat ecological balance with the natural vegetation.2 Their practices of controlled dry season burn- ing, short term cultivation--one to three years, and lengthy period of soil rest out of cultivation—~ten to thirty years or more-~allowed the natural vegetation to reassert itself. The Spanish intrusion brought about a drastic decline of population, to 60,000 in 1552, through the introduction of Old World diseases and forced labor. El Salvador's pOpu- lation did not reach its pre-colonial level until 1770.3 During this in- terim of two and a half centuries, the Spanish profoundly altered the natural vegetation through the introduction of livestock. The Spanish adapted the Indian practices of dry season burning to produce lands suit- able for grazing cattle. Unlike the Indian techniques, burning was prac- ticed on a grand scale and on a yearly basis. This technique and livestock grazing did not allow the forest to reestablish itself. The result, com- pounded by constant grazing and deforestation, has been a wet-dry season brush savanna which is now classified as pastos naturales. This pasture is adequate for wet season grazing, but of little value during the dry season. The 1961 agricultural census classified 40% of El Salvador's farmland as pastes naturales. 1Rudolfo Castro, La Poblacion de El Salvador, Midrid, 1942, p. 553. 2Wilhelm Lauer, Vegetation, Landnutzupg und Agrarpotential _i_n_ _E_1_ Salvador, Kiel, 1956, p. 36. 3Rudolfo Castro, 92, cit., p. 552. _7_ Of El Salvador's total land area of 2,139,300 hectares, 700,000 hectares were not included in the agricultural land census. This area is partly built-on land, recent lava flows, and other wastelands, but is largely scrub forest. Most of this area has suffered a fate similar to that of the pastes naturales but is now so denuded, eroded, or in- accessible that it can no longer be used for commercially productive pastures or forests. Today Salvador's forests can only supply firewood for limited home use. Most of the country's structural timber and all of its pulp and paper are imported. Vogt (1946), Feuerlein (1954), and Lauer (1956) all strongly advocate an extensive reforestation program in order to control silting and to restore the water table. Apparently little has been done in this sphere. The second agricultural land classification is permanent crops. This classification includes 160,000 hectares, most of which is under coffee cultivation, along with some citrus, cocoa, and other tree creps. Unlike the n-tural pastures, these crops have replaced the natural forest vegetation but have not destroyed the potential of the land. This area of cultivates permanentes is mostly over 600 meters in elevation, with the landscape being, in general, rolling hills. Today the cultivates permanentes is Salvador's most productive land in dollar return per hectare and is, of course, based overwhelmingly upon an expert economy. The pastes semhrades, consisting of 101,000 hectares, may be classified as improved pasture. Most of the area has been recently developed through clearing of the Pacific coast, tropical forests, and irrigated river valleys in the north. The ggmh£§§9§_has not suffered soil erosion as severely as the pg§£g§_paturales. The area is either potential arable or milpa land. The fact is evident by its declining area between -8- the 1950 and 1960 censuses: 175,000 hectares to 101,000 in 1961. This decrease is the result of the expansion of crops onto these pastures. The nature and effects of this phenomena will be discussed later. The remaining agricultural area, consisting of 324,000 hectares, id devoted to annual creps. This area comprises a wide variety of land uses and is well distributed throughout the country. The more level and fertile areas are used for export and industrial crops, chiefly cotton, but also sugar and domestic foodstuffs--maize, sorghums, rice, and beans. The quality of this land varies greatly. It includes a small area of irrigated grains along the Rio Lempa. The larger part, however, is lo- cated in the Central Meseta, where coffee cannot be grown profitably. A significant part of the tierra g§_labranza, at least 40,000 hectares, perhaps even 80,000 hectares, are in shifting milpa plots within the pastes naturales. The nature of agriculture in the tierra gg_labranza will also be discussed in detail in other sections of this paper. FEEDING BURDEN The above classifications and variances present the agricultural base upon which El Salvador's domestic food staple production and export agricultural depend. El Salvador has an overall population density of 155 persons per square kilometer. This method of determining population pressure is unsatisfactory. A more exacting method is the commonly used units of arable land per person. In El Salvador, however, one must first determine what can be considered arable land. The potential arable land includes the presently cultivated tierra dg_labranza and the cultivates permanentes and also the sembrados. Therefore, El Salvador seemingly possesses 749,000 hectares of tillable land. This total gives Salvador -9... a man/land ratio of 24 ares per capita. If only land presently under creps is used, the ratio becomes 20.5 ares per person. If the area under perennial crops is excluded, e.g., omitting coffee, the figure becomes 15.5; and if only the area used to produce crops for domestic consump- tion is considered, the ratio drops to about 12.6 ares per capita. Even this figure does not represent the full extent of population pressure in El Salvador. The Salvadoran agricultural census compiles the total area of the tierra dg_labranza by summing the areas of the individual annual crops. This total greatly exaggerates the areal extent of the tierra g2. labranza because in agricultural production of annual crops, intraplanting and double cropping are widely practiced. Thus the areal extent of the tierra g§_labranza--488,000 hectares, some 164,000 hectares are counted twice in the census. When this factor is considered, the land area of permanent creps becomes 324,000 hectares and the area in domestic food crops is reduced to 271,500 hectares. The corresponding man/land ratio draps to only 8.6 ares per capita. This incredibly low resource base is the result of two processes: demographic pressure and an agricultural export economy. Presently El Salvador's limited resource base is being further taxed by an increasingly rapid continuation of the present pro- cesses. These processes rest upon the given social, economic, and political aspects of the country, which are leading the way to their own destruction. -11- TABLE 2. VITAL STATISTICS 1901-1963 Birth Death Natural Infant Year Rate Rate Increase Mortality 1901/05 52.5 28.3 22.0 1906/10 49.7 27.3 24.0 1911/15 48.9 27.0 22.2 1916/20 44.8 30.8 14.0 1921/25 46.1 24.4 21.7 1926/30 46.0 24.4 21.6 1931/35 41.8 23.6 18.2 140.0 1936/40 41.6 19.0 22.6 121.0 1941/45 109.7 1946/50 44.4 17.0 27.4 101.8 1951/55 45.4 15.2 33.2 81.8 1956/60 47.4 13.2 34.2 80.4 1961/63 49.1 11.9 38.2 67.5 aFigures are per 1000 bRudolfo Castro, 22: cit. More important has been the declining death rate of the last forty years. This decline, at least that since 1930, can be attributed almost entirely to the decrease of infant mortality. Death rates of those 15 and ever have probably changed little during the past century. The present low death rate of 11.0 deaths per 1000 per year——9.4 in the United States-- is due largely to the extremely young population of El Salvador—-48Z of the population is under 15 years old. The present rate of population in- crease in El Salvador has considerable room for expansion through a further decrease of the country's high infant mortality rate. Salvador's infant mortality rate of 69.8 is still quite high, compared to 41.9 in Puerto Rico and 25.8 in the United States. Like the rest of the agricultural nations of Central America, El Salvador's people are predominantly rural. The 1961 census gives an -12- urban population of 973,069 or 38.5% of the total. Iowever, the urban definition of the census includes each of 264 municipio seats, most of which are agricultural villages of only a few hundred residents. Only 622,746 or 24.6% of the total population lived in urban areas of over 5000. Over half of these, 314,850, live in or near the capital city of San Salvador. Thus, of the total population of the 13 departments outside of San Salvador, only 15% live in urban centers of over 5000. A second important characteristic of rural-urban differences in El Salvador is the inability of urban centers to drain off a signifi- cant ameunt of El Salvador's rural population growth. The 1930 census reported that 61.7% of the country's pepulation was rural. In 1950 the census reported a seemingly unlikely increase to 63.59% rural. Richard N. Adams offered three possibilities to explain this development.5 First, the definition of rural and urban may have changed since the 1930 census. The 1930 census was not published until 1942, and it is not known what was meant by urban or rural. Also, other findings of the 1930 census shed doubts on its credibility. Secondly, Adams believes that food shortages during the depression may have caused the necessary urban to rural migration. Thirdly, adams cites rural-urban fertility differences as a possible explanation for the slower growth of the urban population. There is no information on the comparative vital statistics of the population; however, the 1950 census reported an average rural family size of 5.25 and of 4.78 for urban. Thus rates of population increases may have been a partial explanation for the slow growth of the urban population. 5Richard N. Adams, Cultural Surveys gf_Panama, Honduras, El_Salvador, and Guatemala, Pan American Union, Washington, D.C., 1954, p. 423. -13- The 1961 census reported a reversal of the possible 1930-50 trend. The rural defined population had drOpped to 61.5% of the total population. However, in 1950 the rural population numbered 1,176,000; by 1961 it had grown to 1,553,111. This large net growth of the rural population reflects the inability of Salvador's urban centers to absorb more than a small part of the country's rural pepulation growth. In fourteen of E1 Salvador's thirty-eight political districts, the rural percentage of the pepulation increased between 1950 and 1961. Most of the remaining districts reported little change of the rural—urban distri- bution, Sal Salvador being the major exception. Thus the rapid growth of Salvador's urban centers is mainly the result of the cities' own natural increase, while rural-urban migration is a relatively minor factor. Another aspect of E1 Salvador's population distribution is the high population densities which prevail throughout the country. In 1961, the average density was 126.6 persons per square kilometer. The important facet of this high density is that it prevailed throughout most of the country. Only two of the thirty-eight districts had a density of less than fifty persons per square kilometer. The two exceptions had forty and forty—four persons per square kilometer. Both of these are northern districts with rugged terrain and mostly scrub forest or pastes naturales vegetation. Twenty-four of the thirty-eight districts had densities of over 100 persons per square kilometer. The accompanying map should give a clear view of Salvador's high rural population density. E1 Salvador's high rural population density and continued rapid rural pepulation growth -l4- has concentrated a higher number of agricultural workers per unit of arable land. E1 Salvador's rural-urban population variables are Opposite to those of the traditional demographic concepts devised in the developed Western nations. The following table consists of averages of the 1961- 63 vital statistics. TABLE 3. URBAN/RURAL VITAL STATISTICS Birth Death Natural Infant Rate Rate Increase Mortality Urban 52.8 13.6 39.2 80.0 Rural 46.8 9.2 37.6 59.0 Total 49.1 10.9 38.2 67.5 3Ministerio de Economia, Anuario Estadistico, San Salvador, 1964. If the rural population statistics are not an under-enumeration, an interesting development is exhibited. The rural sector would have significantly lower birth and death rates and a much lower infant mor- tality rate. If this is the case, an explanation must lie in a tremen- dous urban class dichotomy--greater than that of rural El Salvador-- between a few wealthy peeple, or landowners, or something, and a large class of poverty-stricken proletariat and seasonally employed agricul— tural workers. In addition, the 5% higher natural increase rate of the urban population, if these differences did exist throughout 1950 to 1961, would normally account for about half of the relative urban growth. A final facet of Salvador's population is that it is not the com- monly asserted homogenous country. Both Baron Castro and Richard Adams estimate the Indian population at 20%. Adams believes that Salvadorans -15- will generally agree that there are Indians with a distinct culture still living in their COURtrY-6 However, today the important trait of digging- stick agriculture is shared by Indians and Ladinos alike. 61bid., p. 485. r5 3.62281 35:02 3:00 .33... .358 . I . n a o . 0’ Roof..- : u or. . o. . .95.. 000 9006 - 000d 03.0 . 0006 Quad .000N 000.! -0006. §.v~ - 000.9 000.00 - 000.9.“ 2. Bo coed... 80.08 - ozwoua .09 n zo_._.<1_3n_on_ u moo<>4wwm mwoucoaHoz Hmuuuwoms Howm Hw>m\uw Homw\mb >Hmm wnom. «Howe >nmm wnoa. MHmHm >Hmm wnoa. «Howe Kenna www.mww Hmm.oom H.Hmw Hwo.uoo Hew.ooo H.H~o Hum.uoo Hmm.ooo ~.oNo monmrca mu.bom um.wmu H.u¢m om.moo me.ooo H.Noo Hom.ooo HH.ooo H.omo woman ~w.mwo NH.mmo mom wm.ooo uw.ooo mp0 ~w.moo H¢.ooo muo ”How Hw.mm~ Hm.w>w H.wow Hm.puo ~¢.ooo H.omo o.amo -.ooo ~.w~o p>nmm H: :mnnmnmm. unomconwos H: aonnwo noun. mum wfimpa up WHHomnmem vow rmonmnm. VZHSHmanHo um moosoaum. >bcmnwo mmnmmwmnwoo. kuu. ocnpnmm zmnwoum. moon mam >mnwocwncnmw cummahumnwon. «mmnvoow mm.mnomcnnwou mum Human. Home. acnwnmm zmnwoSm. moon use >mnpocwncnmw onmmbwumnwou. «mmnvoox mm.wnomcnn»os mum Human. Hmmb. ~38— Yields of maize, sorghum, and beans all dropped. From 1948/53 to 1961/64, maize and sorghum production decreased despite increased acreage in both cr0ps. Beans fell in acreage as well as yield, resulting in a drastic decline of production. Only rice was able to buck the general trend. Both yields and acreage climbed between 1935 and 1948/53. During the second period, further increased rice yields were more than offset by acreage reduction. The general decline of Salvador's food crop yields, although some technical improvements have been made, is the result of competition with export cr0ps and soil depletion. As discussed in Chapter III, export crops predominate over food production because of their economic advantages. The large expansions of coffee and cotton acreages have had a direct effect on the production of basic food crOps. Although much of the in- creased cotton area was taken from the pastos sembrados, a significant proportion was former prime maize lands of the Pacific Coast. At this point a feature of trOpical agriculture, and of special meaning in El Salvador, must be pointed out. Regrettably, the acreage and production figures in Table 11 do not give an adequate picture of the resource base or the productivity of El Salvador's domestic agriculture. The phenomena of intraplanting and double cropping are of extreme impor- tance in El Salvador. The Nation's Anuario Estadisticos and the FAO yearbooks present the domestic agriculture situation as they are shown in the table. Thus, actual acreages are over-enumerated and yield stati- stics should illustrate the degree of double and intraplanting practiced in El Salvador in 1961. _68— H>Wfim HM. woou mH>Wfim wWOUdnHHOZIHomH >Hmm mnommnnhmm. 4 «Hope enrmn Onto" Onwmn Honmw 39% wwmbnwnmm Honmw zmw wwmbnwumm Honmw zmw wwmbnwnmm zmwnm nnmo um.woo mm.uoo N~.ooo mw.woo mm.moo Hw.uoc H.0mm H.H¢H mmu moHo Keane madman Hu.Nmo Ho.ob~ mam b¢.ooo bu.boo ooo N.mmo mowo znwu.uoo HH.wmo H.mmo H.o»~ H.omu uum zmwnmlwmm: Hw.umo Ho.pmo N.wuo w: u.bwo a.~oo H.~Ho mm» mmm mHm zmwuml 3| mo.uoo mm.pco N.woo may mum H.mwo zmwnwwwo Hou.~No Hom.boo H.umo mmHHb.~oo HH~.ooo ~.~co H.omN H.omo H.~wm woman Hw.m~o o.umo u.ubo Hm.muo o.Hoo ¢.pbo any mun muN ZmHoHHHo moHo c.moo m.moo HH.m~o HH.mNo H.emo m>nmm H5 :mnnmnmm. unomcnnwoa H: gunmen noun. wwmwm Hp WHHomntm won rennmnm. coarmn mambnwamm Hmvnmmmnn nuovm moss mn mwmmmHmSn awamm on nrm ween. 30mm on nuns mum «macaw ouowm. H.m. noanm nnovvwnm. vwmbnmm H: mounmavmn. axeswmnmnwo mm moosoawm. mmmmwmo nosmo pmnoumncmnwo. Hmow. -40- When El Salvador's extensive use of intraplanting and double crOpping are considered, it must be then realized that the campesino well utilizes the year-round growing season and his abundance of labor per unit of land. The total area planted in basic food crops in 1961 was given by the FAO as 363,559 hectares and included in the nation's total arable land. The actual areal extent of these crops, excluding intraplanting and double cropping, was only 199,272 hectares. In addition, land not cropped during the dry season, some 50,000 hectares, is used as dry season pastures. The average campesino will either plant maize §919J with sorghum, or with beans for his first crop, depending on the quality of his land and his needs. The best lands, especially where the owner has some capital, will be planted in hybrid corn. On the poor denuded lands of the pastos naturales, maize is usually grown alone. The first harvest of maize or beans occurs in September. A dry season crop can then be sown on better land. When maicillo is grown with maize, the sorghum will be harvested in January or February. The net area under the three basic food crOps increased from 185,000 to 199,272 ha. or 7.5% between 1950 and 1961. During the same period the crOpped area by individual crOps increased from 287,000 ha. to 363,559 ha., or 26.6%. The greater increase in total cr0p area was largely the result of more intensive use of the land through extended use of intraplanting and double crOpping. At the time, it must be remembered that the quality of the land had been reduced. The most significant change was the great increase in maize/maicillo intraplanting, which rose from 70,737 ha. to 107,220 ha. The higher yields of hybrid corn were significant in preventing greater decreases of maize supplies than had actually occurred. However, -41- it would be far too Optimistic to conclude that maize yields can be doubled through extended use of hybrid seed. Hybrid maize is grown on prime growing areas, which already gave much higher yields than the national average. Virtually all of the hybrid maize is produced by a May solo cr0p while Creo Maize is usually grown with other crops. CONSUMPTION AND MARKETING In contrast to the export crops, most of El Salvador's basic food production is consumed by its rural population. Nearly all of the maize, sorghum and bean crops are used on the farm or in the small towns. The larger towns, and especially San Salvador, depend upon imported wheat, rice, beans, maize, and even some sorghum. There is, however, a large proportion of the domestic rice production entering the urban market. Only when cotton pests are harmful and high corn prices prevail are the large scale entrepeneurs of the Pacific Lowlands interested in large- scale commercial maize production. On the coffee acreage there has been apparently no inducement for food staple production. Storage facilities for grains are noticeably lacking in El Salvador and are often given as a major cause for low productivity. However, the major reason for few grainaries is that they are not critically needed. First, most of the produce is consumed in rural areas by the campesinos themselves. Second, the year around growing season allows a continuous, although varying, supply of basic foodstuffs in El Salvador. LAND TENURE The highly skewed distribution of land holdings exists throughout Central America. In conjunction with this phenomena it should be kept in -42- mind that 60.2 percent of El Salvador's labor force is engaged in agri- culture.33 The following table only includes farmowners, renters, and share- croppers. Thus, of the total number of agricultural workers of 413,646, only 174,210 are family heads with agricultural land.34 The remainder, although including a few administrators and technicians, are largely seasonally employed manual laborers. Between 1950 and 1961 there was little change in distribution of land tenure. The major deve10pment was a growth of the agricultural labor force to 436,213. Less than half of them, 224,289, owned or rented farm land. Of those with access to land, 105,685, 47%, held less than one hectare of land. Another 85,286 operators, 38% of the total, farmed d.35 more than one but less than five hectares of agricultural 1an In about the same condition are 57,381 heads of families who are remunitive 36 laborers on the larger estates. Those with no or very little land must supplement their income by working on larger estates. It must be kept in mind, however, that there is an average of less than two hectares of cultivated land per agricultural worker in El Salvador. The question of land reform will not be covered at length here, mainly because it has not really been considered by Salvadorans them- selves. Some colonization has been made and a little has been done to 33Ministerio De Economia, Tercer Censo Nacional Populacion, 1961, San Salvador, 1966, p. xxx. 34Ibid. 35Ministerio De Economia, Segundo Censo Agropecuario, 1961, p. 39. 36Tercer Censo Nacional dg_Populacion, p. 236. -43- TABLE 13. LAND TENURE - 1950 Average Size Number Percent Percent income in of of Total of Average in U. S. hectares farms farms area land size dollars 1-14.9 160,740 92.3 366,000 L 23.9 2.3 267.8 I 15—29.9 6,340 3.6 134,700 8.8 r 21.2 2,192.4 l 30—999.9 6,985 4.0 724,800 47.3 103.7 10,966.3 1000+ 145 .1 305,100 20.0 2,104.1 80,689.6 8M. M. Babbar, Los Problemas d§_Tenencia y_Tierra gg_Los Paises d§_ Centroamerica, San Jose, Costa Rica, 1963, p. 42, 48. sell rustic properties to more progressive farmers. Although a degree of land reform, and perhaps much more so tax reform, could be helpful to agricultural production, such developments, even if they occurred, would be but a partial solution to rural poverty in El Salvador. No matter how the land is divided, there will be little or nothing for the vast majority of E1 Salvador's rural population. OTHER AGRICULTURAL CROPS Only a small part of El Salvador's arable land is not used for ex- port crops or the four basic food crOps. The total acreage of fruit, vegetable and tobacco cultivation was only 25,000 hectares in 1950. More recent data is not available for all of these crOps, but there has been no apparent change. El Salvador is the only Central American country which is not an important exporter of bananas. The country does not possess a large coastal or alluvial plain with high enough rainfall to make large scale -44- commercial banana production profitable. Nevertheless, bananas and plantains are the major fruit crops and are a significant calorie sup- plement to the Salvadoran diet. Bananas and plantains are grown on 10,000 to 15,000 hectares37__a few thousand hectares of which are grown as coffee shade trees in the lowest altitudes of coffee production. Other fruit crops in declining order of importance are citrus, pineapple and coconuts. El Salvador is virtually self—sufficient in all of these crOps except coconuts. The country must import about half of its coconut oil needs. Vegetable and root crOps, other than fresh corn or beans, have little importance in El Salvador at this time. The four major crops, po- tatoes, onions, tomatoes and cassava, occupied less than 1,500 hectares in 1957-38Potatoes and onions are imported in small amounts, but are not important foods in El Salvador. Of particular interest will be the future of cassava in El Salvador. This high—yielding starchy root has become an important source of calories in the more densely populated parts of tropical America. The critical drawback of cassava is that it is less than one percent protein. Therefore, it cannot be used as a major source of calories unless it is supplemented by higher pulse and animal protein consumption, without drastic protein malnutrition. Presently some 7,000 metric tons of cassava are produced on some 800 hectares in El Salvador.39 It remains to be seen whether the peasants of El Salvador will have to resort to this crop in order to survive. 37Babbar, _p, cit., p. 17. 38Thompson, _p_. cit., 1961, p. 20-21. 39United Nations, Food and Agricultural Organization, Production Yearbook, 1964, p. 81. -45- LIVESTOCK Livestock grazing, as in most of Latin America, has long been an economic and cultural institution in El Salvador. Perhaps to a greater extent than other areas of domestic agriculture, El Salvador's livestock industries are tied to traditional values and methods of production. Cattle grazing began shortly after the Spanish conquest, but has alwasy been oriented towards the domestic market. The destruction of much of El Salvador's forest vegetation was largely a result of the need for cattle grazing land. Four hundred years of deforestation and grazing has destroyed the productivity of much of El Salvador, especially in areas of shallow rocky soils and steep slopes. In recent years, since World War 11, El Salvador's grazing industries have had to yield much of the best pas- ture to cotton. These pressures, in conjunction with the caualness of the large landowners, who produce most of the country's commercial cattle, has led to a sorry state of the industry. The cattle population of El Salvador is approximately 900,000 today, having grown from 600,000 in 1935.40 During the wet season, the pastos naturales and sembrados are able to support the herd. However, the dry season takes its toll even though areas of the tierra dg_labranza, which are not double cropped, are used as dry season pastures. Survivors of the dry season are often reduced by 25% of their weight. Calf mortality is reported to be 35 to 40%.41 The amount and quality of both the natural and improved pastures has declined in recent years. Between 1950 and 1960 the area of the pastos 40Ministerio De Economia, Anuario Estadistico, 1935, p. 22. 41Thompson, 22, cit., 1964, p. 33. -46- naturales has dropped by five percent. lore significant was the drop in the pastos sembrados from 175,000 hectares in 1950 to 101,000 in 1961. Thus the country lost 42.2% of its best pasture. This loss, which has apparently increased another 30,00 to 50,000 hectares between 1961 and 1964, was due largely to expansion of cotton on the Pacific Coast. Cotton was not, however, the only cause. In each of fourteen departments, the area of the pgstos sembrados declined although cotton expansion was only a factor in seven departments. Other factors were no doubt an expansion of food crOps and coffee. In the northern departments, where soil erosion is worst, the statistics reveal an apparent reclassification of parts of the sembrados to pastos naturales.42 The ownership of cattle, to a greater degree than land, is a matter of prestige as well as an economic asset. The owners of large herds usually possess profitable coffee or cotton acreage. On these lands they practice quite intensive modern agriculture, and obtain very high yields per unit area--note coffee yields by farm size on Table 5. Livestock production, however, is often very traditional on the same estates. The production of meat and dairy products is neglected. Breeding, health of the herd, and feeding are pointed out by Thompson as serious drawbacks to respectable levels of domestic meat supply. However, there are two other underlying causes which have hindered El Salvador's cattle industry. First is the limited food reserve discussed above. In addition to shrinking pastures, El Salvador's declining per capita grain supply has made the feeding of grain to cattle negligible. The only feed reserve 42Ministerio De Economia, Segundo Censo Agrgpecuario, 1961, p. 14. -47- that has been brought into play has been cotton seed. Although some cottonseed meal is used as a feeding supplement, the bulk of it is ex- ported either as cotton seed or meal after processing in El Salvador. In 1964 the quantities of grain and cottonseed meal used in the manufac- ture of animal feeds were as follows: maize--9,778 tons, sorghum-- 4,767 tons, and cottonseed mea1-—5,745 tons.43 The above figures represent less than five percent of El Salvador's grain production and about ten percent of the nation's oil seed protein production. The second factor which will probably hinder a great increase of domestic meat availability in the future is the limited number of persons able to purchase meat. If a rapid rise of beef production were possible through breeding, more irrigated pastures and greater use of feeding supplements, domestic beef consumption would, in all probability, remain static. One case in point is El Salvador's shrimp industry, discussed under the Export Economy. A tremendous rise of production had little effect on domestic consumption. This expensive food could be sold to the rich nations where the same high price may be secured. Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica have all begun large scale beef export operations during the last decade. Domestic consumption, however, has not risen sig- nificantly in any of the countries. There is much room for controversy over the amount of beef produced in El Salvador. The official statistics give the number of livestock slaughtered but not carcass weights. A reasonable estimate for the average weight of meat derived from cattle and calves is considered 100 43Ministerio De Economia, Anuario Estadistico, 1964, p. 301. -48— kilograms.44 A second area of speculation is the extent of illegal slaughterings. The colonial mesta placed strict regulations on the slaughter and shipment of meat. The most significant legacy today is that each of the country's 261 municipios are required to process their own meat supply within the municipio. Livestock may be driven across municipio boundaries for slaughter in another part of the country, but the shipment of meat over municipio lines is generally forbidden. Since the ability to purchase meat is heavily concentrated in San Salvador and a few other urban centers, illicit slaughter and shipment of meat is common in El Salvador. The amount appears to run as high as 30 percent in San Salvador. Some of this meat is illegally slaughtered and some is included in the official statistics, but illegally shipped. Illicit slaughterings, therefore, must be well under one third of total production. A liberal estimate of beef production can be computated as 100 kilograms times the number of cattle officially slaughtered plus one third--allowing for illicit slaughter. Using this method for 1959/61 a high estimate of beef production is 14,000 metric tons. Per capita consumption, by the same calculations, is at most 5.7 kilograms per year. Presently, slightly over 100,000 cattle are slaughtered yearly in El Salvador. Exact statistics which are comparable over decades are not available in El Salvador. In the early 1960's yearly beef production probably ranged from 13,000-15,000 metric tons. Per capita beef consump- 45 tion can be estimated at four and one half kilograms per person per year. This consumption figure, of course, is far from evenly distributed. The 44Thompson, 92, cit., 1961, p. 57. 45Thompson, 92, cit., 1961, p. 43. I.‘ l.‘ l I! ll -49- consumption of beef is highly concentrated in favor of the upper urban class. Just for the sake of speculation, suppose that the upper five percent of El Salvador's population consumed 45 kilograms per capita per year-~that is a level below that of the United States. Then this five percent would consume half of E1 Salvador's beef, leaving an average of 2.30 kilograms per year for the other 95% of the population. Whatever be the case, beef is a rare luxury for the vast majority of Salvadorans. DAIRY PRODUCTS Dairy production in El Salvador facrs the same setbacks of the beef industry. The traditional aspect is emphasized by the fact that over 85 percent of the country's milking stock are low yielding criollo stock, over ten percent are mixed me§£i§2_varieties, and only one percent are 0f purebred StOCk-46 Average production is only 500 kilograms per year per head. E1 Salvador's seasonal precipitation has an adverse effect on milk production. During the wet season the milking herd averages 198,000 and production 1.9 liters per cow. The feeding difficulties of the dry season reduces the number of lactating cows to 129,090 and average pro- duction to 1.5 liters.47 The loss of much of the pastos sembrados to cotton has apparently had a depressing effect on milk production. In 1954 milk production was given at 193,000 tons48 while the 1959/61 output dropped to 121,000 tons.49 46Thompson, _p, cit., 1961, p. 44. 47Thompson, _2, cit., 1961, p. 45. 48United Nations, Food and Agricultural Organization, Production Year— book, 1963, p. 217. 49United States Department of Agriculture, Foreign Regional Analysis Division, Economic Research Service, No. 86, Food Balances for 24_Countries 2§_the Western Hemisphere, 1959-61, p. 16. -50.. PORK PRODUCTION In contrast to cattle grazing, El Salvador's pigs are raised by peasants with small land holdings. These animals are mainly scavengers, receiving only small amounts of grain. As an apparent result of the declining grain availability, El Salvador's swine population has dropped since 1935. The deficiency has been partially made up through imports. TABLE 14. SWINE Amount Number Imports Slaughtered 1935 424,sosa 2,200d 193,000 (est.) 1944-48 371,812b 13,876b 183,238b 1953-57 291,836b 39,664b 187,125b 1959-62 324,000C 47,125d 176,178e 3Ministerio De Economia, Anuario Estadistico, 1935, p. 24. bThompson, up, cit., 1961, p. 61. CMinisterio De Economia, Segundo Censo Agropecuario, 1961, p. 167. dUnited Nations, Food and Agricultural Organization, Yearbooks gf_ Trade, 1954 and 1963. eMinisterio De Economia, Anuario Estadistico, 1964. Pork consumption is about two kilograms per capita per year. Given the numbers slaughtered and the growth of E1 Salvador's population since 1935, it can be safely assumed that per capita pork consumption has dropped drastically. Since pork consumption is more evenly distributed among the population, such a drop seriously effects the animal protein balance of the country's lower classes. It should be noted, however, that part of the effect of decreased pork production has been nullified. Lard has long been used to fry beans -51_ and plantains, and made up the chief source of fats in the Salvadoran diet. Although domestic and imported lard are still important, cotton- seed oil has gradually replaced animal fats as the major source of fat. The processes of a weakened agricultural base, rapidly rising p0pu- lation, and an expanding agricultural export economy have forced El Salvador (1) to rely upon increasingly larger amounts of imported food- stuffs, (2) suffer a slight decline in an already low per capita food supply, and (3) face a difficult future. IMPORTED FOODSTUFFS The deficiencies of Salvador's domestic agriculture and, to be sure, funds derived from an expanded export economy, have prompted and allowed El Salvador to rely upon imported foodstuffs for an increasingly larger proportion of the country's food balance. The following table presents the net trade of El Salvador's major food imports. TABLE 15. IMPORTED FOODSTUFFS (IN METRIC TONSl, __ 1934—38 1948—53 1961-64 Wheat 9,600 19,040 40,300 Maize 800 9,700 17,300 Rice -1,000 —100 1,500 Beans 300 2,850 14,259 Lard 30 1,250 1,213 Tallow 982 4,890 Milk-Condensed 100 550 Dry 3,630 a(-) denotes export bUnited Nations, Food and Agricultural Organization, Yearbooks 9: Trade, 1954 and 1964. -52... In the latter period El Salvador imported 15% of its total grain supply, 14,259 metric tons of beans while producing 16,000, and one fourth of its slaughtered hogs. The country's former five-year plan, estimated that 4.3% of its caloric intake was imported since 1950, but the fiture had risen to 12.2% in 1962. The same source estimated that 6.9% of the country's protein supply was imported in 1950 and that the same increased to 18.6 percent in 1962.50 These imports are not only costly in terms of foreign exchange, but also represent an increasing dependence, which may eventually be that of survival for many, upon imported food. The question now becomes, what additions to E1 Salvador's agriculture base would be required to produce these imported foodstuffs. The quantification of the areal extent of imported agricultural commodities is more comples than the spacial extent of the export economy. Any realistic calculations must account for the effect of inter-planting and double crOpping upon the productivity of El Salvador's agricultural land under its present utilization. Cr0ps which are not grown in El Salvador must be compared with alternative crOps. The following table gives the areal equivalent of imported vegetable foods during 1961/64 in terms of the tierra ge_labranza. TABLE 16. IMPORTED VEGETABLE FOODS Imports-tons Yield-kg./ha. Areal eq. Wheat 40,300 1,900 21,050 Maize 17,300 1,047 16,550 Beans 14,259 582 (24,500) Rice 1,500 2,320 1,545 Potatoes 2,280 2,500 91 Onions 1,114 2,000 57 aUnited Nations, Food and Agricultural Organization, Yearbook 9§_ Trade, 1960. 0 Ministerio de Economia, Plan guinqunal del §1_Salvadg£J San Salvador, 1965. -53- Wheat has been substituted with the average yields of maize/sorghum in- terplanting. The 24,500 hectares needed to produce El Salvador's bean imports are assumed to be available through intra-planting with the maize acreage and double cropping on some of the maize/sorghum area. By these computations, El Salvador dependence on trade represents one seventh of the country's land in annual crOps. It would be feasible, however, to produce the above crops and substitutes through a 58 percent reduction of the 1961/64 cotton area. The conversion of trade in animal products into units of El Sal- vador's land presents certain difficulties, but reasonable estimates can be made. El Salvador's improved pastures, pestos sembrados, support one milk cow per one or two hectares. The average milk cow produces 500 kilograms of milk per hectare. This represents 7 1/2 to 12 1/2 kilograms of protein per hectare through the most efficient method of production. The actual productivity of the sembrados is positively affected by the fact that some of the milk cows which are included in the national average graze on the much poorer pastos naturales. The use of cattle feeds which are not produced by the gembgggg§_is a negating factor of lesser signi— ficance. A protein yield of 15 kilograms per hectare will be considered a good, if slightly favorable, estimate of the productivity of the gem: brados. This figure is used in the following trade acreage table. El Salvador has an animal product deficiency of the production capacity of 104,142 hectares of pastos sembrados. The 1961 Salvadoran agricultural census reported the total area of the sembrados at 101,000 hectares! Thus a doubling of the areal extent of the shrinking sembrados, a two-fold increase of productivity, or a partial combination of both would be required to produce the average annual imports of animal proteins between 1961/64. -54- TABLE 17. TRADE ACREAGE OF ANIMAL PRODUCTS 1961/64 Averages Metric Tons Yield Ha. Eq. Hogs ' 59 ,900 287 head/ha. 18 ,400 Beef 18 13.50 ha/HT { 245 Poultry 12 10.00 ha/MT 120 Prepared Meats 297 11.25 ha/MT 3,340 Lard 1,213 4.00 ha/MT 4,852 Tallow 4,890 6.00 ha/MT 29,340 Evaporated Milk 550 5.24 ha/MT 2,880 Dried Milk 3,630 20.00 ha/MT 73,260 Butter 33 5.73 ha/MT (189) Cheese 500 11.47 ha/MT 5,740 Eggs 21 7.50 ha/MT 157 aHogs in number. bUnited Nations, Food and Agricultural Organization, Yearbook gf_ Eggge, 1964. Although El Salvador's fisheries have become primarily orientated to the export economy, local and imported seafoods play a minor role in E1 Salvador's food supply. Total domestic fish consumption runs around 2,000 metric tons per year. 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