Historical changes in the process of agricultural development in Cuba

The objective of this review is to demonstrate the non-linear properties of the Cuban process of agricultural development by characterizing and analyzing recent historical changes in this process, using the theoretical and methodological approach of adaptive renovation cycles. These changes are summed up in four stages: i) The stage of growth, which followed the period of the latifundio (large extensions of land devoted to monoculture or livestock), involved a series of structural changes oriented toward diversifying production and guaranteeing food self-sufficiency; during this stage, the nation's agricultural production was organized into State businesses, State farms, and small farmers' cooperatives. ii) During the stage of agricultural maturity, Cuba adopted the dominant global tendency of increasing productivity through mechanization, based on use of high levels of agrochemicals; this was accompanied by environmental costs, and depended on high priced exports of sugarcane, coffee, tobacco, and citrus, and low priced imports of processed foods to meet the population's dietary needs, through a commercial agreement with the socialist nations of Eastern Europe. iii) The stage of collapse occurred due to the late 1990s economic crisis which resulted in loss of access to markets of machinery, fuels, and other inputs; ensuing problems included soil erosion, groundwater contamination, and deforestation. iv) During the renovation stage, agriculture was reoriented toward cleaner production based on agroecology, organic practices, innovation, and collective learning. At the national level, the Farmer to Farmer Agroecology Movement was developed on rural family farms. Furthermore, the “urban agriculture” movement sprung up on small urban and peri-urban plots. Currently, regardless of the type of land ownership, agriculture in Cuba is oriented toward agroecology and cleaner production.