percent. The sectorial poverty pattern, highest in agriculture and lowest in public sector, is similar for metropolitan, urban, and rural areas although the poverty rates differ according to location (Figure 6.3). The main explanation for the high poverty rate in agriculture can be traced to migration out of the sector and into higher wage services by some of the most skilled and, in part, to the structure of land ownership and the quality of land and climate. Rural land ownership is characterized by a large number of small farms with an insufficient area to sustain a family by agricultural employment alone.<sup>21</sup> Income poverty among landless rural-dwellers is not necessarily higher than among households with land. P0 for landless households is 36.3 percent compared to 64.8 and 46.8 percent for landholdings of 0.5 or less hectares and 6-10 hectares, respectively. Only households with more than 10 hectares experience less income poverty than landless households; of the farms with more than 10 hectares of land, 31 percent were poor. It is worth emphasizing that only 1.8 percent of farms are larger than 10 hectares in Haiti.<sup>22</sup> Moreover, extreme poverty is monotonically decreasing with farm size in Haiti (Table 6.3).

|Table 6.|3: Poverty<br>|Inciden|ce by Far<br>|m Size (|percent)<br>|, 2001<br>||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||Arti-||Grand-||North-|North-|||South-|Metro-||||
||bonite|Center|Anse|North|east|west|West|South|east|politan|Urban|Rural|Haiti|
|No land|59.7|44.2|58.3|60.2|68.6|67.7|24.7|54.4|50.1|19.5|52.4|54.8|36.3|
|0-0.5 ha|64.9|70.4|75.9|70.1|96.5|68.5|39.9|73.0|56.8|38.6|63.7|65.4|64.8|
|0.5-2 ha|58.5|62.1|66.2|61.8|94.0|65.1|43.6|67.0|59.8|100.0|62.3|60.1|60.5|
|2-6 ha|48.7|44.9|49.4|55.4|78.3|64.9|48.4|42.6|52.9|NA|45.4|52.7|51.2|
|6-10 ha|48.1|33.9|40.0|47.2|55.5|59.5|41.2|53.1|62.2|NA|40.4|47.6|46.8|
|>10 ha|39.1|32.7|36.0|NA|NA|13.1|32.9|25.3|23.7|NA|42.0|28.8|30.6|

_Note:_ 7,177 households used and only 81 farms are bigger than 10 ha. NA: not available.

_Source:_ Own calculations based on HLCS 2001.

The rural poor are primarily smallholders, sharecroppers, and informal wageworkers who depend on a diverse strategy of income-generating activities in which the subsistence production of corn, millet, bananas and plantains, beans, yams, and sweet potatoes and small animals predominates. Any crop surplus is sold at the local placket. Rice is grown in the areas of the country where irrigation systems have been introduced. In addition to subsistence production, Haiti's peasants have traditionally grown crops - principally sugar, coffee, cacao, indigo, sisal, and cotton - to sell for cash, and at times for export. Small farmers lack modern production technology, basic infrastructure to store harvests to take advantage of cyclical price fluctuations, technical assistance to improve productivity, and organized marketing facilities. Family income is therefore highly variable and there is little opportunity for saving. They have very few assets, including education, and are very vulnerable.

> 21 See Verner (2007), Labor Markets in Rural and Urban Haiti.

> 22 See Verner (2007), Labor Markets in Rural and Urban Haiti.

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