The view from below: Cuban agriculture in the ‘special period in peacetime’

Abstract

This article examines the changes taking place in Cuban agriculture at the local level as a result of the demise of the socialist trading bloc and Cuba's subsequent economic crisis. Based on fieldwork in three municipalities of Cuba, the authors describe new developments in each of the three main sectors of Cuban agriculture: state farms, production co-operatives and individual peasant producers. They conclude that the dominant trend of this period is the tendency toward decentralisation of the state farm sector -culminating in the historic September 1993 decision to form production co-operatives on the state farms -counterpoised to renewed attempts to impose greater state control over peasant producers. Overall, they find a good deal of experimentation and heterogeneity in the actual implementation of state policy at the local level.

Cuban Home Gardens and Their Role in Social–Ecological Resilience

“…The government in 1989 launched an ambitious National Food Program directing production towards viandas (roots and tubers) and vegetables. Fallow plots and any available spaces were used to help the country out of its worsening food crisis (Deere et al 1994). The state also focused on rural development through nationwide training programs and educational broadcasts on television with the result that Cuban farmers tend to be well educated, in terms of both modern and traditional knowledge (Álvarez 2001).…”

From Communism to Capitalism? Russia's Agrarian Relations in the Twentieth Century and Beyond

“…Ironically, therefore, there are parallels between what has happened to the post-1991 Russian peasantry and developments in the agrarian sector elsewhere, in the Third World. For example, the decollectivization that occurred in post-1973 Chile [Murray, 2002], post-1976 China [Chossudovsky, 1988;Walker and Kueh, 1988;Ho et al, 2003] and Cuba during the 1980s [Deere et al, 1994]. 6 Because these early debates in Russia about the peasantry, agrarian reform, economic development and modernization were so important, they influenced all subsequent discussions concerning the significance of these same issues.…”

Urban Agriculture in Cuba: Alternative Legal Structures, Crisis and Change

“…A signifi cant proportion of Cuban food production was shifted to urban land to bring sites of production closer to sites of consumption, as fossil fuel transport was limited by oil shortages (Wright 2009 ). Further, the shift to agroecological farming methods was driven by shortages of oil-based pesticides and fertilisers, and shortages of oil to drive farm machinery (Deere et al 1994 ). Urban agriculture was not a deliberate governmental strategy to improve public and environmental health.…”

“…Much of the available land was infested with weeds, and the new farmers often lacked hand tools, fencing wire, machinery, fuel, and access to fi nance, in addition to struggling with uncertainty about what activity was permitted, and bureaucratic oversight and compliance burdens (Hagelberg 2010 ). The micro-management interventions of the Cuban state have been coupled with often unreliable state support, such as procurement trucks that do not arrive to collect perishable goods (Deere et al 1994 ).…”

“…At a rural level, the most signifi cant reform was the breakup of large state farms into unidades basicas de produccion cooperativas (UBPCs), small farming cooperatives located on the peri-urban fringe and run autonomously by groups of farmers (Gropas 2006 ). Under this scheme worker collectives were granted leases, rent-free, over state farm lands in permanent usufruct together with ownership of the goods produced (Deere et al 1994 ).…”