ABSTRACT
Nutritional status is one of the simplest and most direct indicators of social well-being in underdeveloped countries. The status of life and land in Central America attests to the contradictory nature of development/underdevelopment. Land availability, income, social class and urban or rural residence were identified as determinants of three social indicators: nutritional status, mortality and access to health care. The chapter focuses on the institutional dualism within the agricultural sector. It discusses land tenure patterns, farm size and market orientation of the two sub-sectors. The chapter analyzes the interaction between the two sub-sectors and the way in which public policy often favors the large farm, export-producing sub-sector while it discriminates against the small farm, domestic food-producing sub-sector. It explores the interaction between these two sub-sectors during a period of rapid export expansion on the one hand, and a period of export contraction on the other.
