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Report 2 (of 6): Organic by
Necessity - Cuba
Introduction
With the collapse of the Soviet Union
in 1989, Cuba was plunged into an economic crisis
resulting in an overnight fall in the imports of food,
pesticides and chemical fertilisers. With a long-standing
US embargo still in place, urgent measures were needed
to resolve the food shortages. The Cuban government
started an ambitious programme establishing small-scale
organic farming which spread across Cuba and has become
a model for sustainable farming.
Cuba was highly dependent on imports
from the Soviet Union for a high proportion of its
staple foods and thousands of tonnes of fertilisers,
herbicides and pesticides, as well as animal feeds
and petrol for machinery and transport. Within a year,
the country lost over 80 per cent of its foreign trade,
hunger and malnutrition returned on a huge scale,
the average calorific intake of Cubans dropped over
20 per cent and Cuba entered into what was known as
the 'special period'. The agriculture land consisted
of large state farms which used intensive farming
methods, monocultural crops and used large quantities
of chemical inputs. This proved to be a major weakness.
Nearly 70 per cent of the population lived in urban
areas and Cuba did not have the infrastructure or
fuel to transport goods from rural to urban areas.
There were few options to import food from elsewhere
because of the US embargo and they were faced with
the need to huge quantities of food with less than
half of the chemical inputs.
Changing the Face of Agriculture
| 'The Cuban Model for Sustainable
Agriculture' serves as a good menu of priorities
for sustainable farmers anywhere.
- Integrated pest management
- Organic fertilisers and
biofertilisers
- Soil conservation and recuperation
- Animal traction and alternative
energy
- Intercropping and crop
rotation
- Mixing crops and animal
production
- Alternative mechanisation
- Urban agriculture and community
participation
- Alternative veterinary
medicine
- Adjusting to local conditions
- Reversing rural migration
to cities
- Increasing co-operative
use of land
- Improving agrarian research
- Changing agrarian education
(Source: www.newfarm.com) |
The government mobilised resources
on a national scale, putting urban wastelands to productive
use, building up a movement of urban gardens and orchards
and locating farms in the same neighbourhoods as their
customers. People were accustomed to purchasing foods
from shops and supermarkets, and associated growing
food in Cuba with campesino (peasant) life.
To encourage small-scale food production
in urban areas, the government distributed hundreds
of vacant lots free to anyone who wanted to cultivate
it. Large tracts of land were switched from export-oriented
cash crops to food crops. Government incentives encouraged
unemployed people in large urban centres to move back
to work on the land. In 1993, the Cuban government
issued a decree terminating the existence of state
farms, turning them into Basic Units of Cooperative
Production (UBPCs), a form of worker-owned enterprise
or co-operative. The 80 per cent of all farmland that
was once held by the state, including sugarcane plantations,
was turned over to workers.
Havana, the capital of Cuba, became
a priority in the National Food Program. In 1991,
the government began establishing both research gardens
(Organoponicas) and public gardens (huertos
populares). By 1995, there were approximately
26,600 huertos populares throughout Havana
and a vast network of sustainably run small gardens
and farms using co-operative labour and serving local
markets throughout Cuba.
"The people who work here
live in the community and those that buy are also
from the community. This was an ugly area without
any use which has created a supply of employment,
it's created an agreeable environment, it has recuperated
plants that never existed in this area". - Miguel
The Ministry of Agriculture set up
an urban agriculture department to give support to
the new gardeners. This was delivered through outreach
or extension workers based in each of the city's municipalities,
and through direct support given to community efforts.
'Seed shops' supplied seeds, tools and bio-formulations
creating a new urban gardening culture. Organic agriculture
was specifically promoted by the Cuban Organic Agriculture
Organisation, which linked government researchers
and extension workers.
The Cuban Model
All over Cuba production was converted
from high input agriculture to low input, self-reliant
farming practices, using a mixture of old farming
techniques and organic methods.
- Composting and intercropping (growing
two crops together that benefit each other by warding
off particular pests)
- Replacing synthetic fertilisers
with non-toxic biopesticides and biofertilisers
- Using other organic fertilisers
such as natural rock phosphate, animal and green
manures
- Integrating grazing animals
- Rotating crops
- Cover cropping to suppress weeds
- Increasing diversity of crops grown,
encouraging natural predators of pests, soil and
water conservation
- The national ox herd was built
up to provide animal traction in place of tractors,
for which fuel, tyres, and spare parts were largely
unavailable,
- Vermicomposting (earthworm composting)
of residues.
The methods of cultivation allowed
high yields by using few external inputs. Research
institutes were set up to develop more sophisticated
techniques such as worm composting, soil inoculates
and bio-formulations. Over 200 bio-pesticide and biological
control production centres were set up, run by university
graduates. By 1996, by-laws in Havana allowed only
organic methods of food production.
The property rights of the land remain
in the hands of the state, and each collective must
produce a certain quota in key crops to ensure adequate
supply for the whole country, providing food for local
schools, hospitals, and nursing homes. Collectives
can sell what they produce in excess of their quotas
on the open market. A reform made in 1994 offered
a price incentive to farmers both to sell their produce
through legal channels rather than the black market,
and also to make effective use of the new technologies.
Global context
Another significant reason for promoting local
urban agriculture is the way it redresses food
distribution. Farmers in places such as Mexico
and Argentina, who grow strawberries for Canadians
in January, use their resources to produce luxuries
for us, rather than food basics for themselves.
"More than enough food is already being produced
to provide everyone in the world with a nutritious
and adequate diet - according to the United
Nations' World Food Programme, one-and-a-half
times the amount required," states the CornerHouse
Briefing. "Yet at least one-seventh of the world's
people - some 800 million people - go hungry.
They starve because they do not have access
to land on which to grow food, or do not have
money to buy food." |
A network of shops sell tools, seeds,
compost and organic pesticides in each municipality.
They also provide technical information and act as
consultants to their local urban farmers. Fresh produce
is sold from private stands throughout urban areas
at prices substantially below those prevailing in
the farmers' markets.
By mid-1995 the food shortage had
been overcome, in 1996-97 Cuba recorded its highest-ever
production levels for ten of the thirteen basic food
items in the Cuban diet. Ten years later, gardens
occupy approximately 3.4 per cent of urban land (8
per cent in Havana) and are tended by 18,000 individuals.
More than 35,000 hectares (86,450 acres) of urban
land were dedicated to the intensive production of
fresh fruits, vegetables, and spices. In 2002, Cuba
produced 3.2 million tonnes of food in urban farms
and gardens providing fresh, organic produce to the
population and providing a critical role in improving
the diet of Cubans.
Gardens attached to schools have become more common
as local food production and ecological issues become
a regular part of the curriculum. Most rural homes
produce their own staple foods including beans and
traditional root and tuber crops. Interest in sustainable
energy and appropriate technology has led to demonstration
and experimentation centres, travelling libraries
and extension schools opening all over the island.
Looking to the Future
Urban agriculture has become part of the way of life
but there is concern that this might change. The space
devoted to urban agriculture in the future will have
to compete with demands for land to develop tourist
industry and as concessions are made to expand trade
between Cuba and the USA, Cuba could once again become
reliant on foreign food imports. Other industries
such as the tourist industry bring in greater amounts
of foreign currency. Urban agriculture cannot compete
in terms of cash flow, but it provides a wide range
of benefits.
The benefits of the food programme are enormous.
The organic agriculture methods greatly reduce soil,
air and water contamination from synthetic pesticides
and fertiliser, the diversity of crops has led a greater
diversity of diet, food transportation costs are minimal,
waste is recycled, pollution is abated, food security
is high, city dwellers have lots of green spaces and
many people are employed through the programme.
Cuba has truly demonstrated how the government and
market can work together to develop a model of local,
sustainable, self sufficient agriculture under stressful
economic and environmental conditions. Urban agriculture
has played an integral role in achieving food security,
providing fresh organic vegetables and building a
healthy culture of producing food.
Acknowledgements
This case study draws on several articles
written about the food programme in Cuba, referenced
under further information.
Further Information
Articles
Excellent article providing overview
on the state of agriculture globally and a detailed
analysis of the agriculture revolution in Cuba
http://www.foodfirst.org/cuba/success.html
Brian Snyder, Pennsylvania Association
for Sustainable Agriculture
www.foodfirst.org
Urban Agriculture Notes - City Farmer
http://www.cityfarmer.org/cubacastro.html
User Benefits of Urban Agriculture
In Havana, Cuba
http://www.cityfarmer.org/havanaBenefit.html
Cuba's Organic perspectives, Esther
Roycroft-Boswell: Overseas Advisory Coordinator, HDRA,
Coventry, UK
http://www.ruaf.org/no6/25.htm
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