Reality Cheques - Agri-culture: Reconnecting People, Land and Nature - page 74

protection could create new jobs, protect and improve natural resources,
and support rural communities. Such a policy could include many of the
elements seen in the progressive Swiss and Cuban policy reforms that were
made during the 1990s.
Cuba's National Policy for Sustainable Agriculture
At the turn of the century, Cuba was the only developing country with
an explicit national policy for sustainable agriculture. Until the end of the
1980s, Cuba's agricultural sector was heavily subsidized by the Soviet bloc.
Cuba imported more than half of all calories consumed, and 80 to 95
per cent of wheat, beans, fertilizers, pesticides and animal feed. It received
three times the world price for its sugar. At the time, Cuba had the most
scientists per head of population in Latin America, the most tractors per
hectare, the second highest grain yields, the lowest infant mortality, the
highest number of doctors per head of population, and the highest
secondary school enrolment. But in 1990, trade with the Soviet bloc
collapsed, leading to severe shortages in all imports, and restricting
farmers' access to petroleum, fertilizers and pesticides.
The government's response was to declare an 'alternative model' as the
official policy - an agriculture that focuses on technologies that substitute
local knowledge, skills and resources for the imported inputs. It also
emphasizes the diversification of agriculture, oxen to replace tractors,
integrated pest management to replace pesticides, and the promotion of
better cooperation among farmers, both within and between communities.
The model has taken time to succeed. Calorific availability was 2600
kilocalories per day in 1990, fell disastrously to between 1000 and 1115
kilocalories per day soon after the transition, leading to severe hunger, but
subsequently rose to 2700 kilocalories per day by the end of the 1990s.
Two important strands to sustainable agriculture in Cuba have emerged.
Firstly, intensive organic gardens have been developed in urban areas - self-
provisioning gardens in schools and workplaces ( autoconsumos ), raised
container-bed gardens ( organoponicos ) and intensive community gardens
( huertos intensivos ). There are now more than 7000 urban gardens, and
productivity has grown from 1.5 kilogrammes per square metre to nearly
20 kilogrammes per square metre. Secondly, sustainable agriculture is
encouraged in rural areas, where the impact of the new policy has already
been remarkable. More than 200 village-based and artisanal Centres for
the Reproduction of Entomophages and Entomopathogens have been set
up for biopesticide manufacture. Each year, they produce 1300 tonnes
of Bacillus thuringiensis ( B.t. ) sprays for Lepidoptera control, nearly 800