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Cuba: a good example of agroecology
Livia Rodríguez Delis
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CUBA is a beacon that is illuminating the way for
countries around the world in the task of achieving
food sovereignty, affirmed Peter Rosset, a
specialist from the International Sustainable
Agriculture Commission of the Vía Campesina
international organization, which brings together
many organizations throughout the world.
The
expert, who participated in the 2nd International
Agro-Ecology Meeting, praised the strategy developed
by the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP)
to produce food products in a more sustainable way,
in line with environmental protection and a better
service to the country’s consumers.
“What is important,” he said, “is that, since the
beginning of the agroecological movement in Cuba in
the early 1990s, ANAP has perceived the need to make
campesino families the protagonists in the
transformation of their own realities.”
Rosset added that 110,000 families have transformed
their production to a more ecological one in barely
10 years. This change is not limited to members of
the association. It has also had repercussions on
their neighbors, to the point that more than half of
Cuban small farmers are now implementing
agroecological practices. They are reducing Cuba’s
dependence on consumable imports and increasing its
production of very healthy food products.
“Agroecological practices are very important for
various reasons. In the first place due to the high
cost of food produced with agro-chemicals, because
that cost is tied to fuel, something that we can no
longer tolerate in our countries. But conventional
agriculture based on agro-toxins also damages the
environment, destroys soil productivity for the
future, poisons agricultural workers and has harmful
effects on the health of consumers,” he stated.
Referring to the situation facing farmers in Mexico,
his country of residence, he affirmed that they are
facing total disaster because they are immersed in a
political and economic crisis and stuck in the
middle of a drug trafficking war, which, to his
understanding, is rooted in the government itself.
“But
we are putting our hopes in the social movements,
above all in the indigenous movement, which has the
most clarity about the future of the country.”
GLOBALIZING AGROECOLOGY
On
visits to farms, back-yard gardens, livestock and
agricultural production cooperatives, and service
and credit cooperatives, the 170-plus delegates from
25 countries attending the international meeting
were able to see Cuba’s development in the
implementation of ecological techniques and farmers’
awareness of its use.
Cuba
has more than 200,000 farms where distinct
agro-ecological practices are being employed. These
practices include the use of biological methods,
repellant plants to control plagues and diseases,
reforestation, crop rotation, and food conservation
through traditional methods.
Orlando Lugo, the ANAP president, explained that,
initially, they considered this strategy to be a
temporary solution in response to the lack of fuel
and fertilizers generated by the Special Period and
the intensification of the U.S. economic war on
Cuba.
“Afterward,” he said, “there was a yanki attack.
They introduced the tryps palmi plague, which
virtually destroyed the potato and bean harvests in
the western part of the country and we didn’t have
chemical products or the money to buy them, or the
knowledge to combat it. All of this made us aware
that it was necessary and pressing to create a
movement of that nature.”
The
campesino leader explained that, from that moment,
ANAP was restructured in order to move toward
ecological practices, a national group in this
sphere, and ANAP members were trained to act as
organizers of the process in every province,
municipality and town.
Currently, there are designated facilitators in
every cooperative. They are in charge of working
with campesino farmers in line with the strategy,
which he described as an economic necessity for the
island, because imported agricultural products are
becoming increasingly expensive worldwide and the
food supply is now a matter of national security for
Cuba.
Lugo
noted that little rural huts are being built in Cuba
for raising earthworms for humus production, which,
according to their predictions, will exceed 120,000
tons this year.
One
of the greatest achievements of the National
Association of Small Farmers is that its membership
is now in excess of 150,000 campesinos.
FARMER TO FARMER
The
handover of land under Decree 259 has generated a
movement of solidarity among agricultural workers.
New farmers are being trained by their neighbors in
planting, harvesting and plowing the land using
animals, as well as preparing seedbeds, among other
agricultural activities.”
This
essentially Cuban idea, known as Farmer to Farmer,
is a natural product of adopting agroecological
techniques to the country’s realities.”
“Is
it possible to have 5,000 workshops in one morning
to train people on the implementation of ecological
practices in agriculture? In Cuba it is. A great
political will to develop this movement exists,” the
ANAP president affirmed. In coordination with the
Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Sugar and
research institutes attached to these governmental
agencies, training classes on new agricultural
trends are being given to experienced farmers who
are then promoting them in their own territories.
“Agroecology is eternal. There is always something
to do. But the main thing is that we have to keep
creating an awareness among farmers,” he said. •
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