CUBA:
Local Farmers Producing
Food Solutions
By Patricia Grogg
SAN JOSÉ DE LAS LAJAS
(IPS) - Cuba’s food
production is
insufficient to meet the
country’s needs, but the
solution may lie in
successful local
experiences that show
that farming is possible
without the costly
inputs used by the
agriculture industry up
to the late 1980s.
Agriculture on this
Caribbean island is
still recovering from
three decades of the
"green revolution"
characterised by a
centralist policy that
kept most of the 6.6
million hectares of
arable land in state
hands.
However, the authorities
appear convinced of the
need to adopt certain
changes in the face of
rising food prices on
the world market, which
will force the country
to spend around two
billion dollars this
year on food imports.
"I think the country’s
leadership is closer
than ever to letting us
decentralise
agriculture," Fernando
Funes, coordinator of
the Cuban Association of
Agricultural and
Forestry Technicians (ACTAF)
Agroecology Project,
told IPS.
"The fact that power is
being given to the
municipalities to work
at local level is a
great step forward,"
Funes said, about the
creation in April of
Agriculture Ministry
delegations at municipal
level which will be in
charge of land tenure
and boosting production.
Over one-third (36
percent) of Cuba’s
agricultural land still
belongs to the state,
but only 29 percent of
that is cultivated,
whereas nearly twice
that proportion of
non-state land is
productive, according to
the National Statistics
Office (ONE).
Private campesinos
(small farmers) and
Credit and Services
Cooperatives (CCS) made
up of independent
producers make the
fullest use of their
land, cultivating over
65 percent of it.
"Historically,
everything was planned
at the macro level and I
think that led to
failure," Ania Yong, a
researcher at the
National Institute of
Agricultural Science
(INCA), told IPS. She
thinks solutions to the
food problem will come
from the lowest level. "Personalised
local work has given us
the best results," she
said.
Yong is part of a team
for the Programme for
Local Agrarian
Innovation (PIAL), an
initiative benefiting
more than 8,000
producers all over the
island.
María Valido, one of the
beneficiaries, told how
contour farming and
growing king grass
(cattle fodder) with
organic fertiliser on
her land got her through
the drought this year.
Several families in the
valley of San Andrés,
west of Havana, were
able to save their
livestock thanks to the
grass she grew.
Meanwhile, Plácida Aldaz
proudly showed off the
225 varieties of beans
harvested on her land,
some of them yielding up
to 100 pounds per pound
of seed, without the use
of chemicals.
Aldaz, a campesina from
La Palma, near San
Andrés, and her brother
farm dozens of other
crops and raise palm
trees and livestock.
Valido and Aldaz, both
members of PIAL,
participated in the
Local Agricultural
Innovation Festival,
sponsored by INCA and
held May 27 and 28 in
the village of San José
de Las Lajas, south of
the Cuban capital.
"Farming culture has
been lost in Cuba,"
Manuel Ponce, the
coordinator of the Local
Centre for Agricultural
Innovation (CLIA) in
Havana province, told
IPS. "Many farmers now
live in towns and
cities, and their
children don’t want
anything to do with the
land."
Only 24 percent of the
Cuban population lives
in the countryside.
The rural exodus was, in
fact, one of the
consequences of the
so-called "green
revolution", an
intensive farming system
that left a legacy of
one million hectares of
land affected by
salinisation, as well as
eroded, compacted and
infertile soils, and an
"invasion" of weeds like
marabu or aroma (Dichrostachys
species) in the fields,
according to Funes.
Furthermore, 43 percent
of agricultural land
suffers from medium to
severe erosion, while
over 1.2 million
hectares, about
one-fifth of the total,
are lying fallow,
according to ONE
statistics from December
2007.
Funes is in favour of
extending a system
combining agriculture,
livestock and forestry,
which has had excellent
results on several farms
on the island. The
method incorporates
agroecology, is largely
independent of inputs
like chemical
fertilisers and
insecticides, boost
self-sufficiency and
respects the
environment.
In his view, the old
model of "vertical
agriculture" which
centralised
decision-making or
restricted it to state
companies that would
"tell people what they
had to do" was
responsible for much
harm to the sector,
because it did not take
into account local
farmers’ specific
talents or skills.
"But applying
agroecology methods is
not enough. Farmers need
to recover their
self-esteem and earn
enough profits to make a
decent living," said
Funes. "There are a lot
of people who want to
stay in the countryside,
because of tradition and
their own awareness.
"I think campesinos
should have greater
participation in
decision-making, and
more use should be made
of their wealth of
knowledge," Funes said.
Yong, for her part, said
that some farmers
involved in PIAL had
begun to hold positions
in the structures that
design local
agricultural policies.
Expanded production and
increased family incomes
are the arguments that
have gradually convinced
the authorities of the
usefulness of the
programme, she said.
"We have to promote
agricultural innovation,
distribute more land and
give campesinos more
support," said Ponce,
who is also an INCA
researcher. "I think
that if these ideas
catch on, all the
problems can be solved." |
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