von Richard Lapper
One Cuban co-operative market garden is setting a new pace for
productivity; selling produce to local markets, as well as top hotels,
it's hoped such ventures can help to reduce Cuba's dependency on imports.
Beyond the neat lines of lettuce at the Alamar organic market garden and
across the road leading to Havana, some new land has caught the eye of
Miguel Salcines. As the 58-year-old farmer explains how he wants to
start growing fruit and grazing sheep there, he seems every inch the
ambitious rural entrepreneur.
But this market garden on the outskirts of the capital is a co-operative
and Mr Salcines, its administrator, is also a government supporter and
an official who wants to make the Communist system work better.
In fact, the success of the business that he and his 168 fellow workers
have built up makes it something of a model for President Raúl Castro as
he tries to get Cuba to produce more of its own food and reduce
dependence on increasingly expensive imports. Cuba's food import bill is
expected to rise to $2.55bn (Euro1.74bn, Pfund1.37bn) in 2008 from
$1.47bn in 2007.
Since establishing the co-op in 1997, Mr Salcines has seen it grow
100-fold. Sales of vegetables, herbs and ornamental plants have
increased from 50,000 pesos to 5m pesos a year and productivity has
risen sharply. Mr Salcines claims he is producing more than 180 tonnes
of lettuce, tomatoes, cauliflowers and other vegetables a hectare, more
than double that achieved on most Cuban farms. "We can get to 200
tonnes," he says.
Much is sold to the local population from market stalls but the co-op
also counts Havana's top hotels among its clients, providing them with
mint for mojito rum cocktails.
While Cuban state farmers and co-operatives can sometimes struggle to
attract workers unimpressed by hard work and low wages, Mr Salcines
finds labour easy to find. More than 60 new workers have joined in the
past year, attracted by proximity to their homes and a payment system
that recognises effort and commercial success.
Each fortnight the co-op hands out 50 per cent of its profits in the
form of a bonus, with the amount depending on seniority and length of
service. The average wage of 1,000 pesos per month is twice the Cuban
norm. Among the recruits are highly skilled engineers and agronomists.
"We have 17 university professionals and most of our employees are
graduates," says Mr Salcines.
Doing things the organic way
That technical expertise has helped the co-op develop the organic
farming methods on which Cuba became dependent after losing access to
Soviet oil, pesticides and fertilisers in the early 1990s. With Cuba
keen to reduce dependence on hydrocarbons, there is heavy official
support for organic methods. Alfredo Turro, 53, who also used to be an
irrigation engineer, now spends his days rearing earthworms and creating
humus. "Vegetables consume such a lot of nutrients. Unless we farm
organically we can't use the soil so intensively."
The government is encouraging such experiments in "urban agriculture".
Indeed, this year Mr Castro announced an ambitious decentralisation of
the sector, breaking up more than 100 co-operatives in order to bring
production closer to towns and cities and reduce distribution costs. In
addition, the top-heavy agriculture ministry has set up 169
municipally-based offices.
Alcides López, the deputy agriculture minister, told the FT that "the
[new] local offices are very close to the producers. They know where and
when it rains. They'll know producers need a product or a resource so
can act more quickly".
Idle land is to be offered to private farmers and co-operatives on
extended leases, with more credit made available. Farmers, rather than
bureaucrats, will be able to decide whether to reinvest.
Hopes for decreased demand for imports
Whether all this will be the answer to Cuba's agricultural difficulties
is another matter, however. That is partly because of the scale of the
needs. In 2006, for example, Cuba imported 66 per cent of products that
provide protein and more than half of its basic grains, a greater
dependence than at any time since the 1959 revolution, according to the
Centre for Study of the Cuban Economy, a pro-government think-tank based
in Havana.
Ideology could also limit success. Cuba's government remains reluctant
to extend market mechanisms. Although the Alamar and other "urban farms"
sell directly to the community through local markets, bigger producers -
such as the state farms and rural co-ops - sell 80 per cent of their
output at set prices to state-run warehouses that have traditionally
been inefficient.
Although Cuba has signed a deal that will bring Brazilian technology to
a pilot soya project, the country seems some way away from signing joint
ventures with big private international agri-business concerns. Yet that
might be the only way to revive the fortunes of the moribund and
capital-intensive cattle rearing and dairy farming sector.
Many Cubans privately fear that bureaucracy will block success. Mr López
is adamant that will not be so. "We are not magicians. We are in a rush
but we are not desperate," he says. "The changes will be introduced
gradually, without improvisation and without despair."
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