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Organic Farming Takes Off in Cuba |
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By Patricia Grogg*
HAVANA - Organic tomatoes,
ginger, broccoli, oregano and other produce and spices are readily
available today in Cuba's free farmers' markets, thanks to the country's
urban gardening programme.
Small farmers in Cuba produced three million
tons of organic vegetables and herbs in 2002, compared to just 4,200
tons in 1994.
But the vegetable crops grown without chemical
pesticides and fertilisers in the organic family gardens of this
Caribbean island nation currently go towards domestic consumption,
unlike organic sugar and coffee, which have made headway in European
markets.
Exporting organic products requires international
certificates that entail relatively high costs for small farmers.
A group of farmers who have achieved higher-than-normal
yields on plots of land in and around Havana began to sell part
of their produce this year to Cuba's tourism industry, the country's
leading foreign exchange-earner.
''We are going to sell directly to hotels,''
Havana farmer Olga Oye Gómez, 42, told Tierramérica.
''For now, the hard currency we earn will go towards maintaining
our gardens and improving the technology we use.''
Oye Gómez grows three varieties of
lettuce as well as cherry tomatoes, chard, celery, watercress, leeks,
spinach, basil, parsley, mint, oregano and ginger.
Cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage are other
organic crops planted in the small urban family gardens that have
been heavily promoted by the government.
Growing crops or raising small livestock on
empty lots and other unused portions of land in Cuba's cities and
towns took off in the 1990s, in the midst of the economic crisis
and food shortages triggered by the break-up of the Soviet Union
and the collapse of the east European socialist bloc.
Organic farming on small family plots currently
provides employment to 326,000 people in Cuba, a country of 12 million.
Among the virtues of urban agriculture, experts
point to the use of organic compost and mulch instead of chemical
fertilisers, biological pest control methods instead of chemical
pesticides, and other green-friendly techniques.
In addition, giant greenhouses allow vegetables
to be grown in any season. ''We can thus offer tomatoes in July
and August, the hottest months of summer,'' said Oye Gómez,
who farms a half-hectare plot that the Cuban state lent her in 1985
on the condition that she would use it to grow food crops.
The average yield of organic vegetable crops
ranges between 18and 20 kgs per square metre, but Oye Gómez
achieved a yield of 25kgs per square metre in 2002, which she hopes
to boost to 27 kgs this year.
Oye Gómez is a member of a credit and
services cooperative that groups around 160 small farmers who work
plots of land on the outskirts of Havana and sell their crops in
farmers' markets that operate on the laws of supply and demand,
which were authorised by the government in 1994.
The cooperative offers its members access
to technical advice on organic farming methods.
''This was just a rocky piece of ground, because
it is near the coast. But we gradually worked large quantities of
organic compost into the soil to make it what it is today: fertile
land offering good conditions for growing crops,'' she said.
In her garden she grows lettuce in the middle
of summer using a technique that consists of replanting sprouts
with clumps of earth in soil that is rich in organic waste, and
watering the plants twice a day.
Reducing the distance between each plant and
using biological preparations for controlling pests completes her
successful formula for obtaining ''high-quality lettuce, with good
taste and texture,'' she explained.
Instead of chemical fertilisers, Oye Gómez
uses earthworm humus, sugar cane filter cake (part of the waste
left after processing), and cow and chicken manure. The pesticides
she uses are also natural.
The prices that organic products fetch on
the international market are competitive and provide incentives
for environmentally-friendly agriculture, which does not pose risks
to human health, and preserves the soil.
According to Cuban economist Armando Nova,
the prices of organically-grown fruits and vegetables in European
Union countries are 60 to 70 percent higher than those grown with
agrochemicals.
However, in Cuba, organic and non-organic
produce costs the same. ''But there is a difference in quality,
because our products go directly from the garden to the market,
and are always fresh when they arrive,'' said Oye Gómez.
* Patricia Grogg is a Tierramérica
contributor.
From our files:
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