Cuba, history of farmers and democracy!

As we are in the Middle Antropocene we all need to be provided with the minimum welfare level, not just to keep alive like animals, but also to be integrated in the society and feel free to find our spot in this world and enjoy it. Food is something we need but also that we would like to be tasty and enjoy it as much as possible; electricity is something we need to avoid darkness in our cities but also that we would like to use for listening to our favourite music on the devices.. and go on like this!!

Could this introduction be related with sustainable agricolture systems wellknown as agroecological farming? The answer is “yes” and Cuba is an example of this!! Cuba has been an example of democracy and food sovereignty for many years, since the collapse of the Soviet bloc.

As a commercial and political partner, the Soviet Union were used to provide all necessary resources to cuban farmers in order to grown their crops. Cuba was one of the most important sugar producer and exporter among the bloc countries and in order to keep the economy at the same level of the other, in terms of GDP, the government were required to respect the commercial agreement in exchange of fossil fuel supplies and different economical benefits. The dipendence of Cuba from the partnership and those input supplies was at the basament of the social wellbeing of the population but at the same time it ended up to be the reason of the huge crisis that hited Cuba in 1990's, soon after the collapse of the bloc. More than this, because of the rely upon the agricolture as the main source of incomes, there was the necessity to prevent total collapse of the economy.

There was only one way to get through that situation avoiding the collapse, start sustainability practices and being self-sufficent producing one's food and energy,

The government started to promote a urban sustainable systems agricolture providing fields where people could produce food for local consumption. Organic farming is the guide principle of the systems adopted by both the urban and large scale cuban farmers. Generally it is a system characterized by the concept of independance in terms of needed resources to start and carry on the production of food. From this the name “food sovereignty”.

Soil conservation strategy is the most important factor and is based on the compost usage as well as the rotation of the crops during the sesons, replacing chemicals to fertilize the soil, as it was used to be done in monocolture systems.

In order to prevent parassites disease among the coltures, different natural approaches have been tested as well as the biodiversity increment, planting different edible species within the same field, and the development of scientific method to produce natural pesticide made out of erbal essences containing specific active principles.

There are many example of successful projects in Cuba and the universities are concentrating their scientific research on it in order to support both the farmers and the government find a rightful way to claim this type of agricoltural systems, fighting the upcoming globalization that is threating this self-sufficent system of Cuba.

Ok, someone may think those agroecological farms are not as productive as the conventional one .. so the equation wuold be like this, no product=no money ... and rightly ask: What is the point in running a farm and put a lot of exertion in it without receiving a proper financial incomes?

It has been shown this kind of systems were going beyond the merely production of food to deal the crisis and many people have found out a way to run their own business in it.

The majority of the farmer in Cuba are intergrating the organic farming with the renewable resources based energetic systems, such as the biogas production generated by the composting. Actually, as demostrated by the manual “Biogas para la familia campesina” which is one the result of the project Cospe “Tierra viva”, “the biogas technology represent the nacional priority in Cuba and it is one of the foundament of the Energetic Revolution”.

“Tierra Viva” is an ongiong project started four years ago in Cuba. Almost 250 farms from 15 cooperatives joined the project which has been initiated as an experiment. As a result, the farmers involved have increased the food production by the 40% comparing with the previous production. Moreover, this system has been capable to provide a complete range of products to the population increasing the availability to different type of diet and reducing the dependence from foreing exchanges.

In the end, keeping in mind that we have to live and not just stay alive, as a prove of the fact that is possible to gain money from an organic agroecosystem, 6 of 250 farms are already being reconized as agroecological by the local institutions. As a cosequence the government started a proces to develop an agroecological certifying model aimed to spread the oganic farming all over the country, giving the farmers the opportunity to get incomes and choose their own way.

SOURCES

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs6xoKmnYq8

http://permaculturenews.org/2016/09/23/cubas-sustainable-framing-may-threat/?mc_cid=856a18b58c&mc_eid=71810aadfc

http://www.greenreport.it/news/energia/permacultura-agroecologia-e-energie-rinnovabili-a-cuba/