Sustainable agriculture in Cuba

Sustainable agriculture in Cuba

In November, 1992, an interdisciplinary group went to Cuba to investigate the government's claims of recent large-scale adoption of sustainable agriculture. The multi-country delegation included scientists, sustainable agriculture activists and farmers.

The group found that Cubans have initiated a national transition from conventional, chemical-intensive agriculture toward biological and information-based sustainable agro-ecosystems. This transition involves all aspects of Cuban agriculture, from production systems to research and extension, to agricultural labour and quality of life in rural areas.

The transition to sustainable agriculture is partly due to the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1989. The loss of Cuba's primary trading partner plunged Cuba into a severe economic crisis and forced drastic reductions in imports of inputs for conventional agriculture. From 1988 to 1991, oil imports were cut by 50% and pesticide imports by 63%. Chemical fertiliser application rates are 20% of what they were before 1989.

More than 200 local centres have been built to produce biological control agents for insect pests and plant pathogens. Weed management with crop rotations and tillage methods is replacing herbicide use. Extensive monitoring systems are being used to help manage insects, pathogens and weeds. Cubans are changing university agricultural curricula as well as field training for agricultural managers and their employees.

The First National Conference on Organic Agriculture will be held on May 19-21, 1993, in Havana. An international organic agriculture short course with professors from the University of California and Cuba highlighting recent Cuban advances will follow the conference.

[From Pesticide Action Network North America Updates Service (PANUPS) via Pegasus.]

From GLW issue 99