How to make prosperous and sustainable family farming in Cuba a reality

Abstract

A number of factors in Cuba today contribute to the urgent need to develop family farming based on agroecological practices across the island. These factors include: soil deterioration, high external dependenceforinputsandfood,damagingeffectsofclimatechange,lossoffarmertraditions,andthe next generation's disinterest in a farming lifestyle, coupled with the essential contribution that family farmingmakestosupplyingfoodforthecountry,ofteninsmallspaces,togetheroffertherealpossibility of repairing the damage caused by conventional farming practices. Given this urgent need and possibility, it is important to identify and share successful experiences built on innovative practices. The study presented here aims to do just that by sharing the experiences of a farm representative of the cooperative sector in Cuba. This is a longitudinal study of the agroecological transition that occurred in one farm's socio-ecological system between 1995 and 2015. In particular, the study evaluates the socio-ecological resilienceofthefamilyfarmduringthreeperiodsoftransition,whichareconsiderablydifferentfromone another given the strategies of the family and the design and management of the socio-ecological system.Wedefinesocio-ecologicalresilienceasthecapacityofagroecosystemstoadaptivelychangeinits socio-ecological structure and interactions in order to withstand and overcome disturbances, stress and change, and to maintain production levels in harmony with the culture, social organization, and satisfaction of the needs and capacity of ecosystems, in an ecologically possible and socially desirable context Casimiro Rodríguez, 2016;Koohafkan et al., 2011). We used the Evaluation Methodology of the Socio-ecological Resilience of family farms (MERS in its Spanish acronym) (Casimiro Rodríguez, 2016),basedontheevolutionofanarrayofindicatorsofefficiencyandindexesoffood,technological and energy sovereignty, as well as from the transformation process from conventional farming practices to agroecological practices. Based on the results of the study, we show a set of elements that address the need to transform Cuban agriculture by implementing an agroecological base, the importance of family farming, as well as aspects that can come into play in the socio-ecological resilience of other family farms in the country. Please refer to Supplementary Materials, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.324.s1, for a full text Spanish version of this article.Bajo la situación actual en el país con el deterioro de los suelos, la dependencia externa, los efectos del cambio climático, la pérdida de tradiciones campesinas, el desarraigo y desinterés de los jóvenes por hacer vida agrícola, unido a la participación de la agricultura familiar en el abastecimiento de alimentos en el país y el aprovechamiento de los pequeños espacios, la posibilidad real de resarcir los daños causados por la práctica de la agricultura convencional, entre otros, son elementos que demandan en Cuba, el desarrollo deunaagriculturafamiliarsobrebasesagroecológicas.Loanteriorresaltalaimportanc...

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