Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T20:28:37.172Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The transformation of Cuban agriculture after the cold war

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2009

Ivette Perfecto
Ivette Perfecto
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor, School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1115.
Get access

Abstract

Cuba's agriculture after the 1959 revolution had been based on large-scale, capital intensive monoculture, which made Cuba heavily dependent on the socialist bloc for subsidized agrichemical inputs and for set prices of agricultural exports. However, with the collapse of the Soviet Union and its Eastern European allies in 1989–90, Cuba's inputs of fertilizer, pesticides, and petroleum dropped by more than half Cuba responded with a dramatic shift in its agricultural development model that featured appropriate technology, alternative organization of labor, alternative planning, and environmental preservation. Cuban pest control efforts now focus on biological control and on enhanced monitoring and diagnostic techniques. Soil management emphasizes biofertilizers and vermiculture. Minimum tillage and crop rotation are frequent practices among Cuba's independent farmers, agricultural cooperatives, and state farms. The transition to low-input agriculture has decreased the exodus of people from rural areas to cities, and has lead to establishment of lab or camps with volunteer labor and long-term programs for rebuilding rural communities. To address the loss of important food imports while ensuring environmental conservation, agricultural planning now gives priority to crop rotations, city gardens, and introduction of food crops in sugar cane areas.

Keywords

Cubasustainable agriculturelow-input agriculturebiological controlbiofertilizersvermiculturesugar cane
Type
Research Article
Information
American Journal of Alternative Agriculture , Volume 9 , Issue 3 , September 1994 , pp. 98 - 108
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Añe, L. 1992. La biotecnologia en la agricultural cubana: Análisis preliminar. Boletín de Information sobre la Economía Cubana 1:11–18.Google Scholar
2.Benjamin, M., Collins, J., and Scott, M.. 1987. No free lunch: Food and revolution in Cuba today. Institute for Food and Development Policy, San Francisco, California.Google Scholar
3.Carroll, C.R., and Risch, S.J.. 1990. An evaluation of ants as possible candidates for biological control in tropical annual agroecosystems. In Gliessman, S.R. (ed). Agroecology. Springer Verlag, New York, N.Y. pp. 30–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4.Castiñeiras, A.S., Rego, Caballero G., and González, M.. 1982. Efectividad técnico-económica del empleo de la hormiga leona Pheidole megacephala en el control del tetuán del boniato Cylas formicarius elegantulus. (Technical and economic effectiveness of the use of the ant lion Pheidole megacephala to control the sweet potato borer Cylas formicarius elegantulus.) Ciencia, Tecnología y Agricultura (Cuba), Suplemento 1982:103–109.Google Scholar
5.Deere, C.D. 1992. Socialism on one island? Cuba's national food program and its prospects for food security. Working Paper Series No. 124. Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, Netherlands.Google Scholar
6.Deere, C.D. 1993. Cuba's national food program and its prospects for food security. Agriculture and Human Values 10:35–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
7.Dlott, J., Perfecto, I., Rosset, P., Burkham, L., Monterrey, J., and Vandermeer, J.. 1993. Management of insect pests and weeds. Agriculture and Human Values 10:9–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8.El-Gamal, M.S. 1992. Interactions between Azotobacter spp. and Rhizobium sesbani in the rhizosphere of Sesbania sesban (L.) Merrill plants and its efficiency on growth and symbiotic nitrogen fixation. Zentralblatt für Mikrobiologie 147:112–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9.Enríquez, L. 1994. The question of food security in Cuban socialism. Paper presented at the 18th International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association,Atlanta, Georgia, 03 10–12.Google Scholar
10.Gersper, P., Barbosa, C. Rodriguez, and Orlando, L.. 1993. Soil conservation in Cuba: A key to the new model for agriculture. Agriculture and Human Values: 10:16–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11.Groff, G.W., and Howard, C.W.. 1924. The cultured citrus ant of South China. Lingnan Agricultural Review 2:215–218.Google Scholar
12.Huang, H.T., and Yang, P.. 1987. The ancient cultured citrus ant. BioScience 37:665–671.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13.Levins, R. 1990. The struggle for ecological agriculture in Cuba. Capitalism, Nature, and Socialism 5:121–141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
14.Levins, R. 1993. The ecological transformation of Cuba. Agriculture and Human Values 10:52–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
15.Pandey, A., and Shende, S.T.. 1991. Effect of Azotobacter chroococcum inoculation on yield and post harvest seed quality of wheat (Triticum aestivum). Zentralblatt für Mikrobiologie 146:489–494.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
16.Pastor, M. 1992. External shock and adjustment in contemporary Cuba. Working paper. The International and Public Affairs Center, Occidental College, Los Angeles, California.Google Scholar
17.Pérez, Marín E., and Baños, E. Muñoz. 1991. Agricultura y alimentación en Cuba. Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, Havana.Google Scholar
18.Preeg, E. 1993. Cuba and the new Caribbean economic order. The Center for Strategic and International Studies. Vol. XV, No. 2, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
19.Reddy, M.V., Reddy, T.K.R., and Alagawadi, A.R.. 1991. The seed-born nature of Azotobacter chroococcum in sorghum (Sorghum bicolor [L.] Moench). Zentralblatt für Mikrobiologie 146:553–556.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
20.Rosset, P.M., and Benjamin, M. (eds). 1993. The Greening of Cuba's Agriculture. Ocean Press, Albourne, Australia.Google Scholar
21.Shishkoff, N. 1993. New approaches to plant pathology in Cuba. Agriculture and Human Values 10:24–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
22.Tablada, C. 1987. El pensamiento económico de Ernesto Ché Guevara. Ediciónes Casa de las Americas, Havana, Cuba.Google Scholar
23.Thrupp, L.A., and Pérez, T. 1989. Breaking chemical dependency in agriculture: The remarkable case of Cuba. Unpublished manuscript. Energy and Resource Group, Univ. of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
24.Vandermeer, J.H., Carney, J., Gersper, P., Perfecto, I., and Rosset, P.. 1993. Cuba and the dilemma of modern agriculture. Agriculture and Human Values 10:3–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
25.World Health Organization. 1989. World Health Organization Yearbook, 1989. Geneva, Switzerland.Google Scholar