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  • From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Organic Cuba without Fossil Fuels
  • Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2008 23:39:21 -0700


"The success of urban agriculture is put down to the average Cuban
citizen’s commitment to the ideal of local food production [7]. There
is so much for the world to learn from the Cuban experience, not
least of which, agriculture without fossil fuels is not only possible
but also highly productive and health promoting in more ways than one."

A fully referenced version of this article is posted on ISIS members’
website. Details here http://www.i-sis.org.uk/membership.php

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ISIS Press Release 21/01/08
Dr. Mae-Wan Ho

Organic Cuba without Fossil Fuels
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/OrganicCubawithoutFossilFuels.php

Cuba’s experience has opened our eyes to agriculture without fossil
fuels, a possibility rapidly turning into a necessity for mitigating
climate change as world production of petroleum has also peaked.
Dr. Mae-Wan Ho

Cuba 1989

Cuba is where agriculture without fossil fuels has been put to its
greatest test, and it has passed with flying colours. The year 1989
ushered in the “Special Period” [1] a scenario that will hit some
countries in the not too distant future unless they prepare for it
right now.

Before 1989, Cuba was a model Green Revolution farm economy, based on
huge production units of state-owned farms, and dependent on vast
quantities of imported oil, chemicals and machinery to produce export
crops. Under agreements with the former Soviet Union, Cuba had been
an oil-driven country, and 98 percent of all its petroleum had come
from the Soviet bloc. In 1988, 12-13 million tons of Soviet oil were
imported and of this, Cubans re-exported two million tons. In 1989,
Cuba was forced to cut the re-export in half and in 1990, oil exports
were cut entirely as only 10 of 13m tons promised by the Soviet had
been received. At the end of 1991, only 6 of the promised 13 m tons
was received, and the short fall in oil began to severely affect the
nation’s economy.

While oil was critical, other losses were also important, as 85
percent of all Cuba’s trade was with the Soviets. Cuba exported 66
percent of all sugar and 98 percent of its citrus fruit to the Soviet
bloc, and imported from them 66 percent of its food, 86 percent of
all raw materials, and 80 percent of machinery and spare parts.
Consequently, when support from the Soviet bloc was withdrawn,
factories closed, food scarcity was widespread and an already
inadequate technology base began eroding.

The collapse of the Soviet bloc and the tightened US trade embargo
exposed the vulnerability of Cuba’s Green Revolution model, and it
was plunged into the worst food crisis in its history [2].

In early 1990, a survival economy was put in place as 100 000 tons of
wheat normally obtained through barter arrangements failed to arrive
and the government had to use scarce hard currency to import grain
from Canada [1]. The price of food went up and bread had to be
rationed. Overall, food consumption was said to decrease by 20
percent in calories and 27 percent in protein between 1989 and 1992.

To make matters worse, Cuba’s efforts to reverse the trend of rural-
urban migration over the past decades failed to stem the increasing
tides of rural migrants to the cities, especially to Havana. In
1994, 16 541 migrated to Havana from all over Cuba, more than any
year since 1963. By 1996, the figure had reached 28 193, at pre-
revolution level. Shortages of food and medicine and gasoline were
driving people to the capital.

Policies to stop the inflow were put in place in 1997, but not before
the population density in the capital reached 3 000 inhabitants per
square kilometre.

Cuba was faced with a dual challenge of doubling food production with
half the previous inputs, with some 74 percent of its population
living in cities. Yet by 1997, Cubans were eating almost as well as
they did before 1989, with little food and agrochemicals imported.
Instead, Cuba concentrated on creating a more self-reliant
agriculture: a combination of higher crop prices paid to farmers,
agroecological technology, smaller production units, and most
importantly, urban agriculture. Urbanisation is a growing trend
worldwide. More people now live in cities than in the countryside. By
2015 about 26 cities in the world are expected to have populations of
10 million or more. To feed cities of this size require at least 6
000 tons of food a day [1].

The Cuban response

The way Cuba responded was an inspiration to the rest of the world.
It began with a nation-wide call to increase food production by
restructuring agriculture. It involved converting from conventional
large-scale, high input monoculture systems to smaller scale, organic
and semi-organic farming systems. The focus was on using low cost and
environmentally safe inputs, and relocating production closer to
consumption in order to cut down on transportation costs, and urban
agriculture was a key part of this effort [2-5].

A spontaneous, decentralized movement had arisen in the cities.
People responded enthusiastically to government initiative. By 1994,
more than 8 000 city farms were created in Havana alone. Front lawns
of municipal buildings were dug up to grow vegetables. Offices and
schools cultivated their own food. Many of the gardeners were retired
men aged 50s and 60s, and urban women played a much larger role in
agriculture than their rural counterparts.

By 1998, an estimated 541 000 tons of food were produced in Havana
for local consumption. Food quality has also improved as people had
access to a greater variety of fresh fruits and vegetables. Urban
gardens continued to grow and some neighbourhoods were producing as
much as 30 percent of their own food.

The growth of urban agriculture was largely due to the State’s
commitment to make unused urban and suburban land and resources
available to aspiring urban farmers. The issue of land grants in the
city converted hundreds of vacant lots into food producing plots, and
new planning laws placed the highest land use priority on food
production.

Another key to success was opening farmers markets and legalising
direct sales from farmers to consumers. Deregulation of prices
combined with high demand for fresh produce in the cities allowed
urban farmers to make two to three times as much as the rural
professionals.

The government also encouraged gardeners through an extensive support
system including extension agents and horticultural groups that
offered assistance and advice. Seed houses throughout the city sold
seeds, gardening tools, compost and distribute biofertilizers and
other biological control agents at low costs.

New biological products and organic gardening techniques were
developed and produced by Cuba’s agricultural research sector, which
had already begun exploring organic alternatives to chemical
controls, enabling Cuba’s urban farms to become completely organic.
In fact, a new law prohibited the use of any pesticides for
agricultural purposes anywhere within city limits.

The introduction of a diversified market-based system for food
distribution has spurred increased agricultural productivity [1]. The
United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimated that
between 1994 and 1998, Cuba tripled the production of tubers and
plantains, and doubled the production of vegetables, which doubled
again in 1999. Potatoes increased from 188 000 tonnes in 1994 to 330
000 tonnes in 1998, while beans increased by 60 percent and citrus by
110 percent from 1994 to 1999.

Anecdotal information suggests that thousands of families have left
cities and large towns to make their livelihood from the land. Other
information suggests that thousands of unemployed – including rural
migrants – have found employment in urban agriculture.
Rural agroecology and land restructuring

Agroecological methods were introduced into Cuba’s rural communities
largely out of the necessity of coping without artificial fertilizers
and pesticides; but this was also amply supported with substantial
government resources, state-funded research, and fundamental policy
shifts at the highest levels of government [1]. Agroecological
farming in the countryside and organic urban agriculture were the key
to stabilizing both urban and rural populations.

The agroecological methods introduced include locally produced
biopesticides and biofertilizers substituting for the artificial
chemical inputs, complex agrosystems designed to take advantage of
ecological interactions and synergisms between biotic and abiotic
factors that enhance soil fertility, biological pest control, and
achieving higher productivity through internal processes. Other
practices involve increased recycling of nutrients and biomass within
the system, addition of organic matter to improve soil quality and
activate soil biology, soil and water conservation, diversification
of agrosystems in time and space, integration of crops and livestock,
and integration of farm components to increase biological
efficiencies and preserve productive capacity.

In 1993, the Cuban government unveiled a major reorganization of
agriculture, restructuring state farms as private cooperatives. The
new farms, which now make up the largest sector in Cuba agriculture)
were called UBPCs or Basic Units of Cooperative Production, based on
a growing perception that smaller farms would be more easily managed
and better able to take on the sustainable agriculture practices.

The state retains ownership of the land, leasing it on a long-term
basis, but rent-free. The cooperative, not the state, owns the
production, and the members’ earnings are based on their share of the
cooperative’s income. The UBPC also owns buildings and farm
equipment, purchased from the government at discount prices with long-
term, low interest loans (4 percent). Most UBPCs produce sugar at
given quotas, limiting any other crops that they might produce, so
they have little to sell in agricultural markets, which restricts
their options and income.

In addition to the UBPCs, the break up of large state farms has freed
large plots of land for other use, and land has been turned over to
both private farmers and agricultural cooperatives.

Small farmers working on privately owned farms and in cooperatives
have made major contributions to the successful implementation of
agroecology in the countryside.

Agricultural Production Cooperatives (CPAs) were first created 20 to
30 years ago by farmers who chose to pool their land and resources to
attain greater production and marketing and economic efficiency.
Although the CPAs were of minimal importance then, they began to
rebound in the early 1990s. The UBPCs were modelled after them,
except that farmers in the CPAs owned their land.

The Credit and Service Cooperative (CCS) is an association of small
landowners joining up with other small farmers to receive credit and
services from state agencies. They may also share machinery and
equipment, and thus are able to take advantage of economies of scale.
CCS members purchase inputs and sell products at fixed prices through
state agencies, based on production plans and contracts established
with the state distribution system. Any production above and beyond
the contracted quantity may be sold in farmers’ markets at free
market prices. These small farmers have been the most productive
sector in Cuban agriculture, outperforming both the CPAs and UBPCs.
CCS farmers have higher incomes than members of other cooperatives.

While all farmers continue to sell a percentage of their produce to
the state marketing board, farmers are now motivated to produce in
excess of their agreed quota, which they can sell to agricultural
markets, often at twice the contracted government price. They can
triple or quadruple their income.

The urban agricultural miracle

Today, Vivero Alamar (Alamar Gardens) is an oasis amid the monotonous
array of perfectly rectangular apartment blocks of Soviet-style
housing in the Alamar district of eastern Havana. It is a 27-acre
organic farm set in the middle of a city of two million people.
Founded in 1994 on a small 9-acre parcel of land, it has become a 140-
person business [6] producing a steady harvest of a wide range of
fruits and vegetables: lettuces, carrots, tomatoes, avocadoes,
culinary and medicinal herbs, chard and cucumbers. After harvest the
crops are sold directly to neighbours at a colourful farm stand.
Vivero Alamar also sells a range of organic composts and mulches and
a selection of patio plants. In 2005, this neighbourhood-managed
worker-owned cooperative earned approximately $180 000. After capital
improvements and operating expenses, it pays each worker about $500 a
year; compared to the Cuban minimum wage of $10 a month. Vivero
Alamar is just one example of the revolution in food production that
has swept Cuba in the early 1990s and continues today. From Santiago
de Cuba in the east to Pinar del Rio in the west, thousands of urban
gardens are blossoming. Some 300 000 Cubans are busy growing their
own fruits and vegetables and selling the surplus to their neighbours.

Although urban agriculture is totally organic, the country as a whole
is not. But the amount of chemical inputs has been drastically
reduced. Before the crisis hit in 1989, Cuba used more than 1 million
tons of synthetic fertilizers a year. Today, it uses about 90 000
tons. During the Soviet period, Cuba applied up to 35 000 tons of
herbicides and pesticides a year, today, it is about 1 000 tons

Like many small poor countries, Cuba remains reliant on export
agriculture to earn hard currency. It is a robust exporter of
tobacco, sugar, coffee, and citrues, and is selling a significant
amount of the last three as certified organic [7]. Foreign investment
in such ventures is on the rise. But when it comes to sustainable
agriculure, Cuba’s most impressive innovation is its network of urban
farms and gardens.

According to Cuba’s Minsitry of Agriculture, some 150 000 acres of
land is being cultivated in urban and suburban settings, in thousands
of community farms, ranging from modest courtyards to production
sites that fill entire city blocks. Organoponicos, as they are
called, show how a combination of grassroots effort and official
support can result in sweeping change, and how neighbours can come
together and feed themselves. When the food crisis hit, the
organoponicos were an ad hoc response by local communities to
increase the amount of available food. But as the power of the
community farming movement became obvious, the Cuban government
stepped in to provide key infrastructure support and to assist with
information dissemination and skills sharing.

Most organoponicos are built on land unsuitable for cultivation; they
rely on raised planter beds. Once the organoponicos are laid out, the
work remains labour-intensive. All planting and weeding is done by
hand, as is harvesting. Soil fertility is maintained by worm
composting. Farms feed their excess biomass, along with manure from
nearby rural farms to worms that produce a nutrient-rich fertilizer.
Crews spread about two pound of compost per square yard on the bed
tops before each new planting.

Jason Marks writes [6]: “Despite the tropical heat, it doesn't look
like drudgery. Among organoponico employees, there is a palpable
pride in their creation. The atmosphere is cooperative and congeniaL
There is no boss in sight, and each person seems to understand well
their role and what’s expected of them. The work occurs fluidly, with
a quiet grace.”

Gardeners come from all walks of life: artists, doctors, teachers.
Fernando Morel, president of the Cuban Association of Agronomists
said: “It’s amazing. When we had more resources in the 80s, oil and
everything, the system was less efficient than it is today.”

The hybrid public-private partnership appears to work well. In return
for providing the land, the government receives a portion of the
produce, usually about one-fifth of the harvest, to use at state-run
daycare centres, schools and hospitals. The workers get to keep the
rest to sell at produce stands located right at the farm. It is more
than fair trade.

The City of Havana now produces enough food for each resident to
receive a daily serving of 280 g of fruits and vegetables a day. The
UN food programme recommends 305 g.

Joe Kovach, an entomologist from Ohio State University who visited
Cuba on a 2006 research delegation sums up the situation: “ In 25
years of working with farmers, these are the happiest, most
optimistic, and best-paid farmers I have ever met.”

Long queues of shoppers form at the farm stalls, people are shopping
for quality and freshness, the produce is harvested as they buy,
reducing waste to a minimum.

Urban agriculture nationwide reduces the dependence of urban
populations on rural produce. Apart from organoponicos, there are
over 104 000 small plots, patios and popular gardens, very small
parcels of land covering an area of over 3 600 ha, producing more
than the organoponicos and intensive gardens combined [1]. There are
also self-provisioning farms around factories, offices and business,
more than 300 in Havana alone. Large quantities of vegetables, root
crops, grains, and fruits are produced, as well as milk, meat, fish
eggs and herbs. In addition, suburban farms are intensively
cultivated with emphasis on efficient water use and maximum reduction
of agrotoxins; these are very important in Havana, Santa Clara,
Sancti Spiritus, Camaguey, and Santiago de Cuba. Shaded cultivation
and Apartment-style production allow year-round cultivation when the
sun is at its most intense. Cultivation is also done with diverse
soil substrate and nutrient solutions, mini-planting beds, small
containers, balconies, roofs, etc. with minimal use of soil.
Production levels of vegetables have double or tipled every year
since 1994, and urban gardens now produce about 60 percent of all
vegetables consumed in Cuba, but only 50 percent of all vegetables
consumed in Havana.

The success of urban agriculture is put down to the average Cuban
citizen’s commitment to the ideal of local food production [7]. There
is so much for the world to learn from the Cuban experience, not
least of which, agriculture without fossil fuels is not only possible
but also highly productive and health promoting in more ways than one.






  • [Livingontheland] Organic Cuba without Fossil Fuels, TradingPostPaul, 01/22/2008

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