Building a New Agriculture in Cuba

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Building a New Agriculture in Cuba

• Kevin Stranack
• LIBR 500
• January 27, 2001

2
Economic Crisis and the Special Period

• With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991,
  Cuba lost its most important trading partner and
  economic benefactor.
• In agriculture, pesticide and fertilizer imports
  dropped by about 80 per cent and the availability
  of petroleum dropped by half.
• The result was an economic catastrophe, known as
  the Special Period, which threatened the very
  survival of the Revolution.

3
Survival and Change

• One of the most important responses to the crisis
  was the transformation of Cuban agriculture, both
  in its spatial structure and its cultivation
  practices.

4
Cooperativization

• Massive state farms dominated the Cuban
  countryside for nearly thirty years.

Source Benjamin et al. (1989)

• They are now being steadily replaced with
  smaller, worker-controlled cooperatives, known as
  Unidades Básicas de Producción Cooperativa
  (UBPCs).

Source Deere (1997)
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Alternative Agriculture

• It is not just the scale and relations of
  production that are changing in the Cuban
  countryside

• The agro-industrial model of Cuban agriculture,
  based on mechanization and large inputs of
  petrochemicals, is being reshaped into an
  increasingly labour-intensive, organic one.

• Special attention is now being paid to the
  sustainable management of soils, pests, and
  water.

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Soil Management
Oxen Breeding on a Citrus UBPC,
Caimito Source Authors photograph

• Replacement of tractors with oxen reduces soil
  compaction.

• Plowing along the contours of slopes rather than
  against them reduces soil erosion.
• Compost as bio-fertilizer adds organic matter and
  nutrients.

• Planting of legumes to capture nitrogen from the
  air and transfer it to the soil.

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Pest Management
Companion Planting on a Havana UBPC
Source Authors photograph

• Companion planting

• Mass releases of parasitic and predatory insects
• Development of bio-pesticides
• Increasing biodiversity on the cooperatives

8
Water Management
Drip Irrigation, Caimito UBPC Source
Authors photograph

• Drip irrigation

• Reduced water usage
• Mulching and cover crops

9
Positive Results of the Changes

• Gradual economic recovery

Percentage Growth in GDP 1990-1996 Source
Maybardik (19991)

• Higher agricultural yields
• Increased economic independence

• Sustainability of key resources
• Increased worker participation

10
Continuing Problems

• Although important progress is being made in the
  agricultural sector, certain problems continue to
  exist

• The state often continues to act in a patronizing
  manner toward the new cooperatives, regularly
  interfering in their operations.

• Some cooperative managers attempt to minimize the
  depth of participation by the farm workers.

• Some cooperative managers are also unsupportive
  of organic farming methods and look forward to
  the return of mechanization and petrochemicals.

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A New Model of Development

• Despite these problems, incredible odds have been
  successfully overcome.
• Through a combination of increased popular
  control and participation and the implementation
  of organic cultivation methods, Cuban agriculture
  has survived the worst economic crisis in the
  history of the Revolution.
• It provides a powerful alternative to current
  neo-liberal development strategies that have
  shown little sign of improving the lives of
  farmers anywhere in the South.

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Bibliography

• Benjamin, M., Collins, J. and Scott, M. 1989. The
  agrarian revolution in Brenner, P., LeoGrande,
  L., Rich, D., Siegel, D. (Eds.) The Cuba reader
  The making of a revolutionary society. New York
  Grove Press.
• Deere, C. 1997. Reforming Cuban agriculture.
  Development and Change, 28.
• Maybarduk, Gary H. 1999. The state of the Cuban
  economy 1998-1999 in Cuba in Transition-Volume 9.
  Washington Association for the Study of the
  Cuban Economy.
• Rosset, Peter. 2000. Kicking the chemical habit.
  New Internationalist 323 (May) 20.
• Rosset, Peter and Shea Cunningham. 1995. The
  greening of Cuba. Earth Island Journal 10
  (Winter) 23.

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Related Web Documents

• Cuba's New Agricultural Revolution
• Cuba Greens its Agriculture
• Havana's Popular Gardens Sustainable Urban
  Agriculture
• Cubas Organic Revolution
• The Greening of Cuba
• Cuba's New Agricultural Cooperatives and Markets