Agroecology and revolution: Agricultural policies on land, autonomy, and priority crops

Abstract

The literature on agroecology in Cuba agrees that Cuban agroecology is small-scale, non-state, and not prioritized by state agricultural input allocation policies. This article grapples with these 3 assumptions by analyzing the historical and recent agricultural policies of the Cuban revolution in relation to land, producer autonomy, and conventional input allocation and by analyzing the performance of state and non-state agriculture in the period of 2009–2015. Based on in-depth interviews, and analysis of relevant policy documents and secondary data, this article argues that the revolution’s historical policies and post-1990s anti-crisis policies regarding land distribution and limits to wealth accumulation, together with the country’s long-stay financial constraints to purchase conventional inputs facilitated a more or less stable space for small-scale, non-state, non-prioritized agriculture. Nevertheless, the productive performance by crops shows that state and non-state agriculture obtain similar results and face similar challenges.