Dimension and determinants of rural poverty
The drastic decline in the price of raw materials on the world market since 1987, as much as 60% for some products, has plunged the country into an economic and financial crisis, resulting in an increase in unemployment and decrease in incomes. Structural adjustment programmes have resulted in decreased state spending on health, education, agricultural research, extension and road maintenance. Price liberalization and the devaluation of the currency have raised the prices of basic necessities. Growing poverty affects rural women particularly because they bear the main responsibility for providing for the subsistence of their families. Malnutrition affects about 24% of rural children. According to a World Bank study, about 71% of rural families were below the poverty line in 1992/93. Environmental degradation is most acute in the north of the country, which is subject to drought and floods, locusts, and destruction of fields by elephants, rendering the area increasingly dependent on outside food aid. Moreover, the risk of erosion is very high in the highly populated zone of the high plateau of the Western Province, and of the Central Province where the carrying capacity of the land has been reached or exceeded.
