Barkley Rosser wrote:
> The first has to do with a chart I saw in the back
>of a recent issue of The Economist (same issue with
>Gus Hall obit and Survey on Mexico). It showed Cuba
>as one of several countries where rates of child
>undernourishment have sharply increased in the last
>20 years, from almost zero to nearly 20%. There are
>others that are much worse (Somalia, Haiti, and North
>Korea were at the top of the list, with rates well over
>50%), but this put Cuba as worse than India and some
>other places that surprised me.
> Is this due to the cutback in oil supplies from the
>former USSR? If so, what does this say about the
>success of the new "green agriculture" in Cuba? Is
>it classic "socialist inefficiency in agriculture"? \
>Whassup?
***** ...The collapse in GDP was a result of the collapse of trade
relations with countries of the Soviet bloc. In response to the U.S.
trade embargo, Cuba joined the Soviet bloc's international trade
alliance. That integration had two consequences. First, Cuba chose
to remain a predominantly agricultural economy, relying on imports to
meet its requirements of manufactured goods. Second, agriculture
reflected a tendency towards monocrop production, with a heavy
dependence on sugar as an export crop. According to Peter Rosset,
executive director of Food First, in 1989 land under sugar
cultivation was three times as much as that under food crops, and
sugarcane accounted for 20 per cent of agricultural production. This
was not merely the result of the structure of production under
colonialism, but also the consequence of the large market offered by
the Soviet bloc for Cuba's sugar exports at prices which, during the
1980s, were on average 5.4 times higher than world prices. In return
for those exports at favourable prices, Cuba received petroleum which
could be re-exported to earn hard currency. The net result was that
imports accounted for 57 per cent of the total calories in the
average Cuban diet.
The loss of revenue from sugar export that followed the Soviet
collapse reduced export revenues from $5,399.9 million in 1989 to
$1,156.7 million in 1993. This meant that after taking into account
dollar inflows in the form of remittances, for example, imports had
to be massively curtailed, falling from $8,139.8 million in 1989 to
$2,008.2 million in 1993. The consequences were disastrous for the
highly import-dependent production structure. Reduced access to
fertilizers, pesticides, industrial inputs and oil forced a sharp
cutback in domestic production. It also impacted heavily on the
quality of life by generating shortages of food and medicines and by
disrupting transportation....
<http://www.frontlineonline.com/fl1607/16071120.htm> *****
***** ... Prior to the collapse of the socialist bloc, Cuban
agriculture focused on large-scale, capital-intensive, high-input
monoculture. The governments before and after the revolution (1959)
have focused the country's agricultural production on export crops.
After the revolution, agrarian reforms (1959 and 1962) converted most
of the large cattle ranches and sugarcane plantations into state
farms. (Rosset, 1997) Eventually, the state took control of 63% of
all cultivated land. (Benjamin et. al. 1984) The state farms focused
on extensive monocrop production of exports and were heavily
dependent on imported agricultural chemicals, hybrid seeds,
machinery, and petroleum.
In the late 1980's, 48% of fertilizers and 82% of pesticides were
imported. If the raw materials imported for the domestic manufacture
of fertilizers is factored in, the percentage jumps to 94%. (Rosset,
1997) The figures for herbicide (98%) and animal feed (97%) indicate
an almost complete dependence on imported materials for agricultural
inputs. Overall, the identifying elements of Cuban agriculture were
a high degree of modernization, the dominance of export monoculture
crops over more diverse food crops, and a strong dependence on
imported inputs for the agricultural system.
With the collapse of the socialist bloc's support in late 1989 and
1990, Cuba's government declared the "Special Period in Peacetime"
and instituted an austerity program to conserve resources. The
agricultural sector faced a more than 80% drop in the availability of
the fertilizers and pesticides on which they were so dependent and a
more than 50% reduction in fuel and other energy sources produced by
burning petroleum. (Rosset and Benjamin, 1994). Cuba was now faced
with having to rely on its own resources and ingenuity to survive and
feed its population....
... Cuban agriculture has made great progress but the input
substitution strategies do not address the underlying problems
associated with extensive monoculture, and the separation of crop and
livestock operations. Because of its minimal biodiversity,
monoculture systems are vulnerable to pest and disease attack
(Altieri, 1987) and are incapable of sponsoring its own pest control
or soil fertility and other resources required for successful
production. (Altieri and Rosset. 1996)....
Altieri. M.A. Agroecology: The Scientific Basis of Alternative
Agriculture. Boulder, Westview. 1987.
Altieri, M.A. and P. Rosset. "Agroecology and the Conversion of
Large-Scale Conventional Systems to Sustainable Management". Int. J.
Environmental Stud. Vol. 50. Pp. 165-185. 1996.
Rosset, P. 1997 IEEE Technology and Society Magazine. Vol.16:2, pp. 19-25.
Rosset, P. and M. Benjamin. The Greening of Cuba: A National
Experiment in Organic Agriculture. Sydney, Australia: Ocean, 1994.
<http://www.public.iastate.edu/~rjsalvad/reports/s00/cuba2.html> *****
***** ...Cuba's long-term strategy has been to reduce its
dependency on importation of food items. It is a goal that has not
been achieved. In 1989 more than 50 percent of the calories and 55
percent of the proteins consumed were imported (directly or
indirectly). Food imports as a percentage of total imports in 1989
were 11 percent, compared to 21 percent in 1995. [7]
At the present time, the dependency on importation of food items has
increased even more than the overall percentage change.
Approximately 46 percent of the energy and 63 percent [8] of the
proteins provided from food come from imported products. To
revitalize areas with the capability of supplying adequate levels of
food, it will be necessary to have a cash flow, to train producers in
advanced technologies, and to market agricultural commodities and
their processed products.
Cuba has proposed that Floridian enterprises could become the direct
or indirect administrators of Cuban farming, agricultural industries,
and fishing through financial or economic associations (joint
ventures or international economic associations). The flow of
agribusiness products could increase significantly in future
endeavors between both countries.
Any commercial endeavor with countries in the Caribbean and Central
America is privileged. There are financial arrangements between
these countries and Cuba to incorporate within this investment
modality such products as sugar, tobacco, rice, and tomatoes. Such
is the case for 17 mixed enterprises, contracts for economic
association, collaborations, and programs in vegetables, citrus,
grains, flowers, and ornamental plants.
According to Cuban officials, Cuba's foreign investment policy favors
small- and medium-sized businesses. Currently, however, most of
Cuba's agriculture is administered or operated by large
enterprises??state farms, agricultural cooperatives, Basic Units of
Cooperative Production (UBPCs), Credit and Service Cooperatives
(CCS), and the Working Youth Army (EJT). Private peasant farming
accounts for only a small percentage of Cuba's agricultural
production.
To effectively substitute the imported food items, Cuban officials
plan to use whatever investments are offered in this venue to
revitalize local production. They will import only those products
that truly cannot be guaranteed as part of the local production,
subject to natural conditions or unusual costs....
[7] García Anicía, Mañalich I., Pico Nieves y Chang Nancy. "La
sustitución de importaciones de alimentos: una necesidad
impostergable." Cuba: Investigación Econónica, Año 2, No. 4.
October-November 1996.
[8] Ibid. 5, pág., 15.
<http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/BODY_FE161#FOOTNOTE_7> *****
***** ... Urban gardens are now providing an estimated 30% of urban
subsistence food needs. (Altieri et al., 1999) Gardeners are growing
a wide variety of foods including fruits, vegetables, viandas
(starchy root crops including cassava, taro and sweet potatoes),
spices, medicinal herbs, poultry for eggs and meat and other meat
animals. The exact combination of crops and/or animals will vary
with soils, irrigation, climate and the people managing the garden.
(Chaplowe, 1996)...
Altieri, Miguel, Companioni,. Nelso, Canizared, Kristinia, Murphy,
Catherine, Rosse, Peter, Bourque, Martin and Nicholls, Clara, 1999,
The Greening of the "barrios" Urban agriculture for food security in
Cuba. Agriculture and Human Values 16: 131-140, Kluwer Academic
Publishers, the Netherlands.
Chaplowe, Scott, 1996, Havana's Popular Gardens: Sustainable Urban
Agriculture. World Sustainable Agricultural Association. Vol. 5, No.
20, http://www.cityfarmer.org/cuba.html
<http://www.public.iastate.edu/~rjsalvad/reports/s00/cuba2.html> *****
Plus, fuel shortages have made transportation systems deteriorate,
with obvious implications for food security.
While improvements have been made in the agricultural sector
(especially "urban gardens" which have come to alleviate food
shortages), Cuba has not been able to overcome its dependence upon
imported food, imported industrial inputs, & worsened terms of trade
since the collapse of the socialist trading bloc.
That is why Hugo Chavez's assumption of power in Venezuela & his
friendship with Cuba & willingness to supply oil on favorable terms
is really, really good news. A nation poor in natural resources --
especially oil -- cannot sustain & develop socialism in one country
(unlike the former Soviet Union).
Yoshie
