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“Traditional” Agriculture in Cuba
Since 1959 after the Cuban Socialist revolution, Cuba entered into an exclusive trade agreement with the U.S.S.R. Before this period in time Cuba did not have industrialized agriculture widespread. With the trade agreement came imports which were previously not accessible to the Cubans on large scale. The Russians brought with them heavy machinery, access to large oil supply, and industrialized fertilizers and pesticides.
With these resources Cuba started to become a country with an industrialized agriculture system very much like those seen in North America (Nova, 2002).
From the period of 1959 to 1989, monoculture and big agriculture reigned supreme. Cuba became very dependent on their largest trading partner. With the switch over to industrialized monoculture and with the focus on producing sugar, sugar cane became the primary crop followed by tobacco, citrus, and rice(Gey, 1988) . The U.S.S.R. paid about 5.4 times the global rate for sugar during the 30 years they did trading.
This was a proper incentive to move to an industrialized agriculture. The industrialized nature of farming normally does not allow side industries and this was no different. In the thirty years of primary trade relations there was no development of light agriculture or cottage industry (Wright, 2009). This made the Cuba people especially depend on food was imported. Around 57% of Cuba’s food needs were met with imported projects. Cuba used more N2 fertilizers per hectare than any other North America country during the same time period. These were the four primary reasons for need for dramatic effect to occur for the future times (FAO, 2003).
Impending Food Crisis and “The Special Period of Peacetime”
In 1989, with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of trade relations to Cuba the impending shortages loomed over the country. Fidel Castro seeing the looming shortages, declared “ the Special Period of Peace time,” which was a self-imposed state of emergency for the entire country which would last until the country could become self-sufficient in terms of its food production (Sinclair and Thompson, 2001; Windisch, 1994).
This period lasted from 1990 to 1993, and the widespread shortages were highly felt. The availability of industrial pesticides and fertilizers decreased by 80%, fossil fuels supply decreased considerably for the entire country by 47% for diesel and 75% for petroleum (Kaufman, 1992). These resulted in a crash of the economy, which eventually did bottom out in 1994. Food export declines and nearly 50% of the food imports decreased. Electricity uses decreased by 45%. The number of buses in
Havana was reduced dramatically from 2500 to 500. The average caloric intake per citizen dropped remarkable by the end of 1993, due the lack of available food. This resulted in the mean caloric intake of the population decline by about 57% (Wright, 2009; Deere and Gonazlez, 1994). Paper was in such a high demand that scientific journals were discontinued during this period. These shortages forced revamps of many institutions within the Cuba government. The most noticeable of these were medical, educational, and agricultural (Burley, 2006).
Within the agricultural sphere there was a new ideology set in place, one focused on more sustainable ideals. These were accomplished by Cuba scientists spearheading the shortfalls from the “Special period in peace time.” Scientists brought in many current innovations such as widespread biocontrol of pests and weeds. The Cuban scientific community worked together with older farmers integrating old techniques and new innovations in farming were combined (Burley, 2006).
The focus was beginning to switch to extensive agriculture to intensive. Urban agriculture was an offshoot of these developments. The medical community within Cuba took a very different approach, development of their own holistic medicines and a very intensive preventative measures program. A major aspect of this was proper eating (Giles, 1997).
Humble Beginnings of Urban Agriculture
Urban agriculture began when some rural people moved into the city and began growing their own vegetables and raising small livestock. They did so to lessen the shock of food shortages and irregular food supplies (Ritchie, 1998). These were organized through local gardening clubs and other organizations. One of the first projects to be established was the Santa Fe project in the North West section of Havana in 1991.
The government saw this development and took more of a hand off approach to dealing with urban agriculture due to the grassroots nature of the movement (Rosset, 1996). The state contributed to the new National Food and Nutrition Programme and showed support to urban agriculture by making otherwise wasted urban land accessible for growers provided they use the plots of land year round for food production (in the way of no taxes). The clear benefits for urban agriculture are simple; to meet the high demand of food supplies of cities, meet them with the high labour accessible within the cities within the wasted spaces (Chalowe, 1996).
The National Food and Nutrition Programme also assisted these groups by providing incentives in the way of free markets and help with the marketing, providing more incentives to grow food. This created a free market for food within the Communist country. The government went forward with urban agriculture on 3 principles; the use of organic methods that do not contaminate the soil, the use of local resources is always preferred, and to allow the direct marketing of the produce (Wright, 2009).
There are several benefits why the state initiated and continued to back urban agriculture.
To meet the high demand of food within cities, it lessened the high market prices of fresh vegetables within cities which helped the average Cuba to meet their nutritional requirements. Through the selling directly to the consumer helped overcome losses by post-harvest and transport costs. And ultimately it promoted job creation within urban areas by creating a new work force (Martin, 2002).
Free markets were created to reduce the power of black market and also to stimulate production, increase food production efficiency, complement ration and increased access to fresh produce. Free markets for fresh produce were put into legislation in 1994 (Moskow, 1999).
Initial success of urban agriculture was apparent in Cuba. Food production double and even tripled in the years following its inception. In 1997, a resolution was passed to allow each urban dwell up to 1/3 of an acre of land to be used for agricultural purposes free of taxes as long the land in used for agriculture year round. This program was called usufructo gratutito, and helped established many would be farmers to make the leap over (Martin, 2002). The incentives provide enough opportunity for people to actually get into farming. Due to the free market, all the workers on the farms get shares of the sales of the produce, which in can result in significantly higher wages than those in other profession field such as doctors (Enriquez, 2000).
Urban Agricultural Practices
There are three main types of urban gardens within the cities of Cuba. Organoponicos are state or co-oped ran gardens. These are typically consist raised garden beds, with stones at the bottom to allow for drainage. Organoponicos are usually have preference for getting more technological advances. These normally have food quotas they must reach to supply major markets but anything above the quotas they can sell direct to people located at the gardens. Intensive home gardens are another type of urban agriculture in Cuba. These are more profitable for the farmers as they do have quotas they must provide for and can sell their produce directly to their consumers near their gardens (Wright, 2009).
Good planning was essential for setting up the framework to have a continual supply of market fresh vegetables. Harvests are consecutive, beds are always full. Seedlings are always ready to plant when beds become available. Urban agriculture is highly intensive which allows for micro-management of individual plants. The raised beds have higher temperatures and are typically dryer and not very conductive to many pests. Organoponicos receive weekly visits from government regulators to monitor and prevent the outbreak of plant diseases (Montanaro, 2000).
As a part of their organic mandate Cuban agriculture focuses on innovative ways to protect their crops. One method is by planting repellent crops such as the Mexican marigold (Tagetes minuta), catch crops to attract pests from cash crops. They also employ a selection of pest-tolerant crops, and then more work intensive methods such as clean planting material, nematode free organic material, soil inversion to reduce the breeding grounds for parasites, and crop rotation. The uses of natural pesticides are also incorporated (Rosset and Moore, 1997).
There are two main organic techniques for controlling insect pests in terms of pesticides. One is the release of beneficial insects (entomophagens) which acts as parasites or predator to pest insects. The other is the use of natural bacteria and pathogens of certain pest species (entomopathogens). There are over 220 small labs and production centres for the production and distribution of the biological pest and disease controls. While these pesticides were mainly developed for the major crops they are used periodically in urban agriculture situation dependent (Rosset and Moore, 1997).
The production of organic fertilizer is essential for the operation of the farms so as the soils are not deplete and food production is not decreased. The sources of the fertilizers come from 4 main sources; animal wastes, plant residues, industrial and residential wastes. The main organic material are biotierra (composted sugarcane residues), gallinasa (chicken manure and rice chaff) and cow manure which are all supplied by state farms. Though these fertilizers are more focused on rural agriculture situations they are used when available in urban agriculture (FAO, 2003).
The nationwide organic agriculture system is regulated and directed by The National Urban Agriculture Group. This group consists from individual from scientific and government institutions as well as urban farmers. All inputs such as seeds, seedlings, biological pesticides, tools and accessories can be purchased in municipals shops. Specific advice on soil fertility is given by provincial and municipal Organic Fertilizer Reference Centers (Wright, 2009). In 1998, a project to establish worm compost production centers in each province with aims to expand into each municipalities. Retraining was require by urban producers, they are required to take about 4 year (FAO, 2003).
By 1999-2000 urban production was providing up to 70% of the daily individual vegetation requirements and consist of 60% of horticultural vegetation consumed in Cuba. Prices for produce are self-regulated to reflect supply and demand (Martin, 2002). Prices varied between farmer markets, those in cities are still much higher than those in rural areas. Agriculture producers are provided with obligatory and non-obligatory outlets for their produce. Some of the major obligatory outlets include those of the state plan, hospitals and nurseries, export markets, tourism hot spots, industry, seed supply and the producers own needs. Any production above that is available to sell directly to consumers just outside the farms gates (Moskow ,1999).
Urban farmers are typically roughly around 58 years from a rural background, although the age ranges from 28-80 years. Most live within 1km of their gardens if not directly adjacent to them. The average farm plot size ranges from 18m2 to 40,000m2. The majority of farmers use the state ran program of usufructo gratutito to acquire and use their plots of land (Moskow, 1999).
References
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