Will Poor People Grow Vegetables? What Makes Poor People Poor?

Recently posted from Honduras is this question: is it worth trying to teach poor people to improve their lives by growing vegetables?  

http://lagringasblogicito.blogspot.com/2009/03/will-poor-people-grow-vegetables.html 

It reminded me of a time in Nicaragua when I had a farm there.  Every family seemed to have a few cows, goats, pigs and chickens that wandered the streets, making it impossible to have much of a garden without a serious wall or fence.   Even those with walls/fences often needed to keep their animals inside at night, so their yards were also just bare of vegetation.  Which is to say - it's not simply a matter of wanting to plant vegetables or being dedicated, but whether they would dedicate such a huge amount of resources to buy land and build a wall (even if they had the financial resources) before planting or weeding.

I remember one local man telling me, "I tried to plant pepper plants once, I had many of them - but most of them were destroyed by animals; the few that remained, the neighbors stole the peppers when they were green.  Never planted them since."

Of course, there are a few people who do plant vegetables - but they already have walls set up to keep out the animals, a gun and dogs to keep out the neighbors.