Reforms that have started to liberalize 50-year-old rules restricting farming and land ownership in Cuba are spurring a revival in the country’s food production system, say two activists.
Some land formerly part of state farms has been made available to farmers, markets have been opened, farm produce prices and incomes have risen and land is switching from mono-crop sugar production for export to food needed for local consumption, they said during a visit to Ottawa.
The changes have come in the past two years since 80-year-old Raul Castro replaced his ailing brother, Fidel, as the country’s president in 2008 and launched an economic reform policy.
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“Because of the changes, we have more land, we can produce a diversity of crops and we can earn more money,” Maranela Perez Peña said in an interview through a translator. The farmer, university professor and researcher is involved in an agricultural co-operative and is part of a 10 acre operation with her family.
She was in Canada with university agricultural professor and researcher Raquel Maria Ruz Reyes on a World Food Day tour sponsored by Oxfam Canada.
Oxfam is helping fund a project allowing farmers to switch from sugar production to products for local consumption.
“Farmers are better off and production has increased,” said Reyes.
“The average price farmers receive is better, they can grow more crops without government control and they can sell in local markets.”
She said the new government policy also includes more training for farmers.
At the core of the Cuban agricultural reforms is a government decision that farmers can own land and expand their holdings by buying unused or underused land from former state farms.
There is also less of an emphasis on producing sugar, tobacco and citrus for export and more encouragement for producing fruit, vegetables and meat to be sold at local farmers’ markets or to food depots.
Milk remains highly regulated under the system, with all sales made to state agencies that then make it available at subsidized prices.
“It is an important item for the population, so the government still buys it,” said Reyes.
However, the government is paying farmers more for their milk, which has increased production. The reforms are sparking the beginnings of an agricultural renewal, said Peña.
“They are providing new land to farmers and it has encouraged more people to take up farming,” she said. “We have seen more young people coming back from cities and taking up the land.”
Farmers often form co-operatives, where members debate and decide collectively what production is required.
However, agricultural reform is in its early stages and the country still requires food imports. As well, farmer acceptance of the new opportunities is uneven across the country.
“Not everyone is organized in the co-operative system,” said Peña. “There also is the option of local farmers’ markets, but that is not everywhere.”
