Poverty in Haiti is a long lasting issue that affects the residents on a daily basis playing a significant role in their everyday lives. Issues including housing, nutrition, education, healthcare, infant mortality rates, and environmental factors are very common amongst the poorest communities in the nation. Haiti has long struggled with poor living conditions in the more rural areas of the country causing many Haitians to migrate towards the capital city of Port-au-Prince. Poverty in Haiti is regarded as among the most severe in the Western hemisphere. Agriculture With a terrain more mountainous than Switzerland, Haiti has a limited amount of arable land. According to soil surveys conducted by the United States Department of Agriculture in the early 1980s, 11.3% of the land was highly suitable for crops, while 31.7% was suitable with some restrictions related to erosion, topography, or conservation. The surveys revealed that 2.3% was mediocre because of poor drainage, but was acceptable for rice cultivation, while 54.7% was appropriate only for tree crops or pastures due to severe erosion or steep slopes. According to estimates of land use in 1978, 42.2% of land was under constant or shifting cultivation, 19.2% was pasture land, and 38.6% was not cultivated. The use of purchased inputs, such as fertilizers, pesticides, machinery, and irrigation, is rare due to farmers in Haiti employing more traditional agricultural methods. Haiti utilizes more traditional cultivation methods than any other country in the Western Hemisphere due to the cost and absence of modern equipment. Small farmers also lack timely access to credit which impacts their ability to capitalize on certain crops and growing seasons. When credit is available, it is usually provided at usurious rates which gave rise to the local informal credit industry. The country's major public financial institutions provide loans to the agricultural sector, but benefit less than 10% of all farmers. Major credit sources included the Agricultural Credit Bureau, agriculture credit societies, credit unions, cooperatives, and institutions created by nongovernmental organizations. CIA World Factbook In 2015, the gross domestic product in Haiti was estimated to be US$18.54 billion by The World Factbook, ranked 146 (out of 230 countries) in the world. Although GDP growth in Haiti is among the fastest in the region, it has not been sufficient to significantly reduce poverty rates. United Nations Development Program The United Nations Development Program estimated the national poverty rate in 2014 at 58.6%, with those