Smallholder farming for sustainable development: lessons on public policy from the Cuban agroecological transition

Abstract

ABSTRACT The persistence of the peasantry challenges conceptualizations of smallholders on both the left and the right. It also highlights the vital role that smallholders play in socio-ecosystems. This paper uses the Cuban agroecological transition to re-think the role that smallholders play in development discourse and practice. By analyzing the public policies that Cuba enacted after the Special Period, this article derives several public policy lessons – including securing land tenure, localizing food production and regulating market development – to inform smallholder-driven transition elsewhere. These lessons provide important points of departure for efforts to improve the social, economic and ecological dynamics of smallholder agriculture.