Cuban Agricultural Revolution

Happened to pick up an issue of the spring '08 Small Farmer's Journal and found an article about the Cuban agricultural revolution that occurred following the 'special period' of the early nineties. With the fall of the bloc states and the US embargoes, Cuba found itself without oil, farm inputs, pesticides, herbicides, and particularly staple foods. Instead of collapsing as the US must have intended, the regime there reversed their decades of agricultural modernization and sought a pragmatic solution: grow their own food using animal power, animal manure, green manure, and organic farming practices.

"Participatory Plant Breeding (PPB), in which researchers work directly with farmers, has steered Cuban national agricultural practice away from high dependency upon unsustainable elements..."

"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." (http://www.cubaagriculture.com/cuba-agriculture-history.htm)

1. Agroecology
   
2. Right to farm (free lease on state land to all)
   
3. Fair wages to farmers (3x more than average worker)
4. Local production
5. Farmer-to-farmer training
6. Communal intellectual property
7. Oxen schools

Some things to look into:

1. Deere, C.D. (1996). The evolution of Cuba's agricultural sector: Debates, controversies and research issues (International working paper series, IW96-3). Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Food and Resource Economics Department, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.
2. Funes, F., Garcia, L., Bourque, M., Perez, N., & Rosset, P. (Eds.) (2002). Sustainable agriculture and resistance: Transforming food production in Cuba. Oakland, CA: Food First Books.
3. Sinclair, M., & Thomson, M. (2001). Cuba: Going against the grain: Agricultural crisis and transformation. Boston, MA: Oxfam America.