Cuban Agrarian Reform

By: EconomyWatch   Date: 21 April 2010

About The Author

EconomyWatch

The core Content Team our economy, industry, investing and personal finance reference articles.

EconomyWatch, Content Team

 

  • Dot Div
  •      

The primary aim of the Cuban Agrarian Reform was to break from the Soviet Russian commercial practices and activities on state levels and generate a sense of autonomy within the agricultural sector of the country. In fact, the present Cuban Agrarian Reform is in favor of setting up independent co-operatives for the overall benefit of the farming class. It also emphasizes the introduction of market-oriented accounting systems, to increase the profitability in the agricultural sector.

 
Agrarian reforms in Cuba: Different Phases of Development

Agrarian reforms in Cuba constitute a series of changes in the agricultural sectors, which started after the Revolution of 1959.

1st Agrarian Reform in Cuba: Prior to the introduction of the 1st Agrarian Reform in Cuba, the country's agricultural system was under the complete control of the landlords. But after the Revolution of 1959, the First Agrarian Reform nationalized more than 5 million hectares of lands in Cuba, followed by reallocation of 1 million hectares of arable land areas among 100,000 farmers and more. This facilitated the rapid development in the agrarian sectors of the nation especially on state levels.

The First Agrarian Reform also made an attempt to amend the mono-culture of sugarcane in Cuba. The mono-culture of sugarcane was maintained by United States, as there were discriminatory import quotas for Cuban sugar. The cancellation of quotas by the agrarian reform had immense impact on the Cuban sugarcane production, resulting in long-term vulnerability of the overall agricultural sector and sugar market in the nation. This was a period which saw the gradual rise of cooperatives into the Cuban agrarian scenario, with the establishment of the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP) and the Credit and Service Cooperatives (CCSs).

2nd Cuban Agrarian Reform: The wave of the 2nd Agrarian Reform in Cuba was evidently felt from the middle of the 1970s. The Second Cuban Agrarian Reform was born out of the economic upheavals which swept the nation, following the failure of a harvest program in 1970. The Reform brought in the following changes in Cuban agricultural sector:

  • It encouraged the small peasants to form cooperatives, by the name of Agricultural Production Cooperatives (CPAs).
  • A well-planned, extensive system of agricultural productions in Cuba introduced by the 2nd Cuban Agrarian Reform aimed at the overall development of the agrarian sector in a highly efficient manner. It was at that period that the Cuban agricultural output grew by substantial amount.
  • The 2nd Agrarian Reform in Cuba nationalized the country's farmsteads extensively, enabling the state to own as many as 82% of the total land areas by 1989.

The 3rd Agrarian Reform during the 1990s: The Third Cuban Agrarian Reform began with the introduction of changes in the nation's sugarcane sector. The sugarcane sector was divided into the Basic Units of Cooperative Production (UBPCs). Peasants belonging to this type of organization controlled all resources of agricultural production, except land, which was under direct supervision of the law of the country. By the year 1999, merely 24% of the total arable land in Cuba was under state ownership. In 2004, the cooperative memberships totaled five hundred, with 60% of the members engaged in cultivation. In fact, under the influence of the 3rd Agrarian Reform, farming at the cooperative levels rose from 16% in 2003 to 91% in 2004.

With the implementation of the Third Agrarian Land Reform in Cuba, animal traction was replaced by mechanized ones, to hasten up the process. Organic manures were applied on the cultivable land to enhance the fertility of land, in place of the regular agro-chemical ones. Moreover, there was extensive expansion of the private farmsteads and the peasant's markets were legalized. All these measures were immensely helpful for not only solving the acute and persisting food shortage in Cuba, but encouraged farming on small-scale. In this respect, the Third Agrarian Reform in Cuba may be compared to the Green Revolution of India.

 

  • Dot Div
  •      

Most Popular in World Agriculture

Related Links
blog comments powered by Disqus