Best practices for small farmers in Cuba and Costa Rica in the Global Era (1990-2008)

This article explores the evolution of cooperatives in Costa Rica and urban agriculture in Cuba as two cases of best practices among small-scale farmers to engage in a process of agricultural development from 1990 to 2008. This article shows how both avenues have enabled small-scale farmers to expand production and secure their long term survival under diverse agricultural strategies in the context of globalisation. The principal conclusion of the paper is that these channels might have the potential to create similar opportunities for small-holders in other developing economies applying different agricultural policies

Cuba’s alternative/inward-looking development policies. Changing production patterns and land decentralisation: towards sustainable small farming (1990-2008)

While most Latin American countries followed outward-looking policies of agrarian development, since the 1990s Cuba shifted towards food self-provisioning, internal liberalisation and sustainable small farming to face the harsh crisis that followed the Socialist demise of the late 1980s. Although it was an indispensable response to the worst crisis in Cuban history, Cuba is today one of the few countries experimenting with alternative development on a national scale. By considering the current context of globalisation where free trade agreements and progressive agrarian liberalisation have created asymmetrical trade relations, increasing import dependency and vulnerability for small farmers in less developed countries, this paper aims at answering the following questions: (1) What were the policies implemented under inward-looking agrarian development in Cuba (1990-2008)? (2) How did the policies transform Cuba’s agrarian production patterns and land structures? (3) How have the inward-looking policies generated new spaces for small farmers in Cuba

Success and failures of inward-looking development in Cuba (1990-2008): opportunities and problems for small farmers

While the rest of Latin America followed outward-looking policies of agrarian development during the 1990s and early 2000s, Cuba implemented an inward-looking model during this period. In the midst of the most severe crisis in its history, the Special Period, Cuba dramatically shifted from export dependency to inward-looking development. Cuba is a unique case in terms of agricultural development. Cuba’s agricultural development model provoked important transformations in the country’s agriculture sector. It revolutionised food production patterns and decentralised land structures and commercialisation. But did these changes create spaces for private small farmers to increase national food production during the 1990s and early 2000s? And if so, what particular spaces were created? This paper explores these questions concentrating on three key dimensions: 1) income and employment; 2) production and productivity levels; and, 3) small farmers’ contribution to national food security.Mientras el resto de países latinoamericanos siguieron políticas de desarrollo ‘mirando hacia fuera’ en las décadas de los 90 y principios del siglo XXI, Cuba puso en marcha un modelo de desarrollo ‘mirando hacia dentro’ a lo largo del mismo período. Durante la crisis más grave de su historia, el Período Especial, Cuba pasó de forma dramática de la dependencia de las exportaciones al desarrollo ‘mirando hacia dentro.’ En este sentido Cuba representa un caso único de desarrollo agrario. El modelo cubano de desarrollo agrario provocó transformaciones importantes en el sector agropecuario del país. Revolucionó los patrones de producción de alimentos y descentralizó las estructuras agrarias y la comercialización. ¿Crearon estos cambios espacios para los pequeños productores privados de aumentar la producción de alimentos para el consumo interno durante los 90 y primeros años del siglo XXI? Y si así fuere, ¿qué espacios particulares fueron creados? Este artículo analiza estas cuestiones centrándose en tres dimensiones: 1) ingresos y empleo; 2) niveles de producción y productividad y 3) la contribución de los pequeños productores a la seguridad alimentaria nacional

Evaluando la recampesinización temprana en Cuba desde el Período Especial (1990-2008)

[EN] Cuban peasants had a significant role model in the past as they returned to the political agenda after the Revolution, and with particular emphasis during the Special Period, to confront the lack of food imports. The fall of Communism in the wider world forced Cuba to implement an alternative agriculture model that revolutionised production patterns and decentralised land structures and commercialisation. Did these changes create opportunities for small farmers during the 1990s and early 2000s? And if so, what kinds of opportunity were created? This article assesses the initial effects of re-peasantisation in terms of increasing small farmers’ incomes and significance in numbers, and their contribution to national food production (considering production and productivity levels), from 1990 to the end of Fidel Castro’s administration. [ES] Los campesinos cubanos tuvieron un importante rol en el pasado volviendo a la agenda política después de la Revolución, y con particular énfasis durante el Período Especial, para enfrentar la falta de importaciones de alimentos. La caída del comunismo obligó a Cuba a poner en práctica un modelo agrícola alternativo que revolucionó los patrones de producción y descentralizó las estructuras agrarias y la comercialización. ¿Crearon estos cambios oportunidades para los pequeños productores durante la década de 1990 y principios de los años 2000? Y si es así, ¿Qué tipo de oportunidades generaron? Este artículo evalúa los efectos iniciales de la recampesinización en términos de aumento de los ingresos e importancia numérica de los pequeños agricultores, así como su contribución a la producción nacional de alimentos (considerando los niveles de producción y productividad), desde 1990 hasta el final del gobierno de Fidel Castro

¿Accedieron las mujeres a la tierra en Cuba? Género, reforma agraria y recampesinización, 1959-2018

[EN] Cuba represents a paradigmatic case where the peasantry is not an anachronism. The Cuban peasantry played a key role in the past and returned to the political agenda after the Revolution with special emphasis under the government of Raúl Castro (2008-18). However, the role of peasant women has not been significantly explored with a long-term vision that links post-revolutionary achievements from a gender perspective with the agrarian reform process initiated in 1959 and continuing today. Through secondary sources and a historical review of Cuba’s agrarian reform process, this article attempts to answer –from a qualitative perspective– the following questions: What role have women played in the celebrated process of agrarian reform and re-peasantisation in the past and present, and what are the real opportunities for peasant or landless women through the new Decree-Laws from 2008 to 2018? [ES] Cuba representa un caso paradigmático donde el campesinado no es un anacronismo. El campesino cubano jugó un papel clave en el pasado y volvió a la agenda política tras la Revolución, con especial énfasis bajo el gobierno de Raúl Castro (2008-2018). Sin embargo, el papel de las mujeres campesinas no ha sido explorado de manera significativa con una visión de largo plazo que vincule los logros posrevolucionarios desde una perspectiva de género, con el proceso de reforma agraria iniciado en 1959 y que continúa en la actualidad. A través de fuentes secundarias y de una revisión histórica del proceso de reforma agraria en la isla, este artículo intenta responder –con un enfoque cualitativo– a las siguientes preguntas: ¿Qué papel han jugado las mujeres en el célebre proceso de reforma agraria y recampesinización en el pasado y en el presente? ¿Cuáles son las oportunidades reales de las mujeres campesinas o sin tierra bajo los nuevos decretos-ley de entrega de tierras en usufructo de 2008 a 2018

Costa Rica's Outward‐Looking Development: From ‘Agriculture of Change’ to Food Insecurity

[ES] Costa Rica provides an excellent example of the neoliberal approach to agricultural policy implemented during the last two decades in Latin America. In the early 1980s, Costa Rica shifted from limited promotion of import substitution industrialisation to export-led growth and non-traditional crops. This article presents important findings about the effects of outward-looking development policies since the 1990s on Costa Rica’s patterns of food production and land tenure. While trade liberalisation has diversified agriculture and increased the levels of export production, it has also had negative effects on food security

Costa Rica's outward-looking development: from ‘Agriculture of Change’ to food insecurity (1990-2008)

Costa Rica has been a great example of the neoliberal approach to agricultural policy implemented during the last two decades in most Latin American countries. Costa Rica shifted from import substitution industrialisation (ISI) to export-led growth and what the government and international organisations called ‘Agriculture of Change’ in the early 1980s. A combination of an active state, stable democracy, high social investment and support for small and medium firms, including cooperatives, resulted in higher economic growth and better gender and income distribution than in neighbouring countries. Since 1990, Costa Rica accelerated trade liberalisation, foreign direct investment (FDI), and non-traditional agricultural exports (NTAEs) through agricultural conversion programmes. Since the early 1990s new patterns of agricultural development have promoted the regional specialisation of agricultural production. The new strategy shaped agriculture and rural development in different regions and cantons creating opportunities and challenges for small famers and rural inhabitants.Costa Rica es generalmente descrita como un buen ejemplo del enfoque neoliberal de desarrollo agrario implementado en la mayoría de los países latinoamericanos durante las últimas dos décadas. Costa Rica pasó de la industrialización por sustitución de importaciones al crecimiento basado en las exportaciones a principios de los 80. La combinación de un estado activo, una democracia estable, una elevada inversión en capital humano y el apoyo a las pequeñas y medianas empresas, incluyendo las cooperativas, dio como resultado un crecimiento económico elevado y una buena distribución del ingreso así como una mayor igualdad de género de la que encontramos en los países vecinos. A partir de 1990 Costa Rica aceleró la liberalización comercial, la atracción de inversión extranjera directa (IED) y las exportaciones agrarias no tradicionales (EANTs) a través de programas de reconversión productiva. Desde 1990 los nuevos patrones de desarrollo agrario han promovido la especialización regional de la producción agropecuaria del país. La nueva estrategia ha dado forma al desarrollo agrario y rural de las diferentes regiones del país creando oportunidades y desafíos para los pequeños productores y habitantes rurales

Food Import Dependency in Cuba: Still the ‘Achilles’ Heel of the Revolution'?

[ES] The ‘Special Period in Peacetime’ plunged Cuba into an austerity programme of great severity. The crisis forced agriculture to shift dramatically from a model based on trade dependency (sugar exports providing most of the foreign currency) to one prioritising food import substitution. This alternative brought about major transformations in the country’s agriculture. It revolutionised food production and decentralised land ownership. This article asks whether or not these changes reduced food dependency in Cuba. It provides an updated picture of Cuba’s food import dependency, with a particular emphasis on the increased role of small farmers in food production during the 2000s

From grassland to forest: the puzzle of land tenure and forest conservation in Costa Rica (1962–2014)

[EN] This article discusses Costa Rica’s policies and institutions created by the state to redistribute land during the 1960s and 1970s, when Latin American was implementing agrarian reforms. The paper also addresses the creation of the national parks system and forest conservation state policy supported by different scientific organisations during the same period. Within this context, this research seeks to explore the interface between the agrarian question (surrounding land and agrarian reform) and the ecological question (related to forest, national parks and conservation policies). The study examines how the transformations in land tenure and forest conservation have led to the structuring of a ‘new agrarian question’, which encompasses the concentration of land as well as the concentration of payments for environmental services

Agricultural policies, Nutritional and Food Security and Food Sovereignty: lights and shadows of the Cuban case (1900-2015)

[ES] Partiendo del concepto multidimensional de Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutricional (SAN) establecido por la FAO, este artículoanaliza las políticas agrarias implementadas en Cuba, con especial relevancia desde la etapa liderada por Raúl Castro, y su impactoen la disponibilidad, acceso, estabilidad y utilización de los alimentos, utilizando la base de datos de la FAO (Food SecurityIndicators) para el período 1990-2015. Para completar el análisis y entender la relación entre determinadas dimensiones de la SAN,en particular la estabilidad y acceso, el estudio propone una quinta dimensión de autonomía alimentaria. Esta quinta dimensiónademás relaciona las SAN y la soberanía alimentaria en las condiciones especiales de Cuba. [EN] Considering FAO’s definition of multidimensional Food and Nutritional Security (FNS), this paper discusses agricultural policies implemented in Cuba during the Special Period.The article particularly focuses on those policies implemented by Raul Castro’s Administration and their impact on the different dimensions of FNS: accessibility, availability, utilisation and stability (Food Security indicators) from 1990 to 2015. The paper also proposes a fith dimension of FNS based on autonomy and food import substitution. This dimension is an attempt to relate food sovereignty and food security in the particular circumstances of Cub