The Organic Farming Movement in Cuba

1
The Organic Farming Movement in Cuba

• Fernando Funes

2
Pre-Revolution Land Distribution

• 9.4 of the land-holders owned 73.3 of the land
• 85 of the farmers rented their land
• More than 4 million hectares left uncultivated on
  large estates
• 200,000 landless families
• Over half of the best agricultural lands lay in
  the hands of foreign owners

3
Agriculture During the Revolutionary Period

• Land was distributed to more than 200,000 peasant
  families
• 70 of the latifundio lands were passed over to
  the state control
• Early daysemphasis in agricultural
  diversification (nature-friendly)
• but period tendencies pushed toward
  conventional agriculture

4
Objectives of Revolutionary Agriculture

• To meet the food requirements of the population
• To generate export earnings
• To provide raw materials for industry
• To eradicate poverty and unsanitary conditions of
  the countryside

5
Conventional Agricultural Problems

• Over-specialization, monocropping, and excessive
  intensification
• Excessive dependence on external inputs
• Large-scale deforestation
• Salinization, erosion, compaction, and fertility
  loss of soils
• Unsustainable intensive factory farming systems
  of cattle, poultry, and pig production
• Heavy rural-urban migration

6
Special Period in Cuba

• 1989Acute crisis began suddenly with the
  collapse of the European socialist countries and
  the disintegration of the Soviet Union
• Prior to 1989more than 85 of Cuban trade was
  with European socialist countries
• --Little more than 10 with capitalist countries
• Cuba imported two-thirds of its food stuffs,
  almost all of its fuel and 80 of its machinery
  and spare parts from socialist countries

7
Effects of the Crisis

• Purchasing capacity was reduced to 40 percent
• Fuel importation reduced to a third
• Fertilizers reduced to 25 percent
• Pesticides to 40 percent
• Animal feed concentrates to 30 percent
• All agriculture seriously affected

8
Objective of Special Period Agr. Policy

• To shift to a low external input form of
  agriculture, while at the same time boosting
  production

9
Pillars for Transformation

• Scientific educational development
• Specialized institutions
• Specialized legislation
• Research
• Teaching
• Extension
• Productive practice

10
Structural Reorganization

• Decentralization of the state farm sector through
  new organizational forms and production
  structures
• Land distribution to encourage production of
  different crops in various regions of the country
• Reduction of specialization in agricultural
  production
• Biological pest controls and biofertilizers
• Renewed use of animal traction
• gardening movementsurban,family, and community
• Farmers markets under supply and demand
  conditions

11
(No Transcript)
12
(No Transcript)
13
Organic Farming

• 1970s and 1980sCuban scientists and farmers
  started searching for alternatives to high input
  agriculture
• Many traditional practices were remembered
• agroecological Lighthousesfarms where
  agroecological concepts are applied and which
  promote sustainable production systems in
  different regions
• aimed at the production and marketing of
  organic products
• Collaborates with other organizations to
  create education, research, and development
  programs on sustainable agriculture

14
Why Cuba won the Alternative Nobel Prize

• Organic Fertilization and Soil Conservation
  (manure, sugarcane filter-cake mud)
• Ecological Management of Pests, Diseases weeds
  (Biological control by using predators, insect
  pathogens, and disease antagonists)
• Crop rotation and polyculture
• Legume-based livestock systems, silvo-pastoral
  systems, and integrated crop-livestock systems

15
Why Cuba won the Alternative Nobel Prize

• Ecological Soil Management
• Successful Organic Farming Experience
• Popularization of small rice production
• Medicinal plants
• Incipient organic development programs
• Organic fruit production
• Organic coffee and cocoa

16
Methodology

• Universities
• Farmer to farmer
• The Ministry of Science, Technology, and
  Environment has given priority in recent years to
  research in sustainable agriculture
• Does not represent a change of technological
  models, but of the very way in which we conceive
  of agriculture
• Considers the farmer as a cultural and not just
  productive unit

17
Organics as an Alternative

• Its principles run counter to the vicious
  globalization promoted by neo-liberalism, and are
  more in favor of a socially just and solidarious,
  more human globalization, without dependency on
  transformation corporations and in favor of
  self-sufficiency.

18
Favorable Conditions

• Strong demand for agricultural products
• Plenty of qualified personnel linked to
  agricultural activities
• Population experienced in community work
• Administrative and social structures that support
  food self-sufficiency
• Official mass media willing to sponsor publicity
  campaigns for the peoples benefit
• Research results that are compatible with the new
  model
• The return of many people to the countryside in
  recent years
• Organizations dedicated to the creation of an
  agroecological culture