AGRICULTURE IN CUBA TODAY

Cuba is now one of the world leaders in biofertilisers, with a highly impressive production of organic food. This agricultural approach has breathed new life into rural communities and done a great deal to stem rural migration to urban areas. It is the envy of international organizations promoting organic farming and sustainable development. Cuban farmers and researchers are applying traditional and alternative technologies to food production and forging ahead towards their ultimate goal of total sustainability.

Another area in which an innovative approach has been applied is that of urban agriculture. Havana is the largest city in the Caribbean, housing 20% of Cuba’s population. Food shortages and the lack of fuel for distribution had a catastrophic effect on the city in the early nineties so the establishment of private gardens, state-owned research gardens and popular gardens employing around 25,000 urban farmers has been of inestimable value in maintaining the capital’s food supplies. The popular gardens range in size from a few square metres to large plots of land which are cultivated by individuals or community groups. They yield important food supplies to local communities in addition to the medicinal plants prescribed for all manner of ailments by local yerberos.

In 2006 one cannot yet declare that everything in the Cuban garden’s lovely, but it would be churlish to deny the agricultural achievements of recent years:
By 1999, there were gains in yields for 16 of 18 major crops, potato, cabbage, malanga, bean and pepper yields having higher yields than Central America and being above the average yields in the world.

By the end of 2000, food availability in Cuba reached daily levels of 2600 calories and more than 68 grams of protein (the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation considers 2400 calories and 72 grams of protein per day to be sufficient).

By 2002, 35,000 acres of urban gardens produced 3.4 million tons of food. In Havana, 90% of the city's fresh produce came from local urban farms and gardens, all organic. In 2003, more than 200,000 Cubans worked in the expanding urban agriculture sector.

In 2003, the Cuban Ministry of Agriculture was using less than 50% of the diesel fuel it used in 1989, less than 10% of the chemical fertilisers and less than 7% of the synthetic insecticides. A chain of 220 bio-pesticide centres provided safe alternatives for pest control.
The ongoing National Program for Soil Improvement and Preservation benefited 475,000 hectares of land in 2004, up 23,000 hectares in 2003. The annual production of 5 million tonnes of composted soil by a network of worm farms is part of this process.

At the time of writing, the Cuban government is heavily committed a close partnership with Venezuela and potentially with other left-wing Latin American governments. Agreements with Venezuela include the constitution of a bilateral enterprise to promote agricultural development, training and biodiversity. For several years Cuba has been exporting its city farming ‘revolution’ to Venezuela, despite sceptical remarks from Venezuelans about why so much effort should be put into urban farming when there are thousands of miles of fertile farmland so far uncultivated in the country.

It is to be hoped that in the wake of new international economic agreements, the important progress made in Cuban agriculture will not be relinquished to renewed reliance upon costly imports, a facile short-term solution with –as has already been observed in Cuba - catastrophic long-term implications. It remains to be seen whether the Cuban administration will have the vision to continue to espouse sustainable agriculture. In the long term, when the United States’ trade embargo is finally lifted and cheap agricultural products become widely available, it is unlikely that Cuban farmers will be able to compete without returning to intensive agriculture, unless skilled marketing initiatives are applied to promote the currently excellent standards of Cuban organic produce.