Honduras

Country Context

Honduras has a long history of fragility and instability that has contributed to food insecurity and widespread poverty, exacerbated in recent years by climate impacts, the COVID-19 pandemic, global supply chain challenges and inflation. In 2023, more than half of Hondurans lived below the poverty line. Smallholder farmers, who make up the majority of the farming population, struggle to grow enough to sustain their families.

There is great potential to improve the quality and quantity of staple foods, dairy and commodity crops produced and increase the incomes of smallholder farmers. This requires investing in improving farmers’ access to capital, technology and extension services and building the food system by investing in and supporting small and medium enterprises in the processing and commercialization sectors.

Our Response

Heifer and partners take a comprehensive approach to address the interconnected challenges facing smallholder farmers, producers and processors. Our inclusive approach strengthens social capital, integrates women and vulnerable groups and engages community members in decision-making and developing shared plans centered on their goals.

Heifer provides technical training and helps farmers organize into local and regional cooperatives and producer organizations to increase their purchasing power, incomes and access to buyers. Working closely with stakeholders across key value chains, we strengthen partnerships that advance the agriculture sector, improve smallholder farmers’ market presence and positively impact people and their communities.

Our primary objective is helping families achieve a sustainable living income, our measure for the amount of money required for a decent life — including safe shelter, nutritious food, clothing, education and health care — while also reaching additional benchmarks for economic and climate resilience.

The Honduras Signature Program

Heifer International’s work is organized at the country level into Signature Programs focused on a large-scale and measurable impact achieved by building partnerships at all levels. Each program supports farmers through time-bound projects designed to increase their household income.

Promesa Café and Cacao

The Promesa Café and Cacao Signature Program is a regional initiative that plans to support 146,380 smallholder farming families to achieve sustainable incomes by 2030 through coffee and cacao production. This program focuses on enhancing competitiveness, marketing and resilience in these value chains, targeting improved quality and productivity to access high-value markets. The goal is to build robust support systems and partnerships to improve how these products sell and manage climate-related risks and opportunities for young people and women in these regions.

Sustainable Livestock

The Sustainable Livestock Signature Program is working to boost the livestock and beekeeping sectors in Honduras with the goal of bridging the income gap for 136,880 families by 2030. Supported by the United States Agency for International Development, the program works with dairy farmers and small and medium-sized dairy processing companies to enhance productivity and expand market access. Simultaneously, the program incorporates climate-smart and regenerative agricultural practices to bolster the resilience of dairy farms while mitigating environmental impacts.