[Via Communist Internet... http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ] . . ----- Original Message ----- From: Walter Lippmann <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: CubaNews <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, June 15, 2001 2:22 AM Subject: [CubaNews] Urban agriculture in Cuba An encouraging report on mobilizing popular initiatives in Cuba to expand food production. ____________________ GRANMA June 13, 2001 A different kind of agriculture . One million 200,000 hectares of urban agriculture . Conserving biodiversity . Work in household yards aimed at collecting seeds from Cuban fruit trees which could otherwise be lost BY RAISA PAGES (Granma International staff writer) ISRAEL Mart�nez looked at his cherimoya trees with affection. Now that he was retired, he could care for them and admire them much more often. Yet what he didn't know until recently was that without realizing it, he was contributing to the preservation of Cuba's biodiversity. When his local urban agriculture representative from the People's Council told him, "We need you to keep the seeds," he thought it was so that they could control the number of trees he had. "Look, we want you to produce fruit for your family and you can give your fruit to whomever you like," explained the agricultural technician. "We just want you to help us with the seeds, to help preserve endangered species. The most important thing is to keep the land fertile." "Do you know about agriculture?" asked Israel, suspicious of the young man in his twenties. "I have an intermediate-level technician's diploma in agronomy," he replied. "Well then, tell me what you think about those bell pepper plants over there. I planted them about a month ago, and they're not growing." This conversation took place a month ago and now Israel and the local agricultural representative are great friends. This is part of a program for popular production that already includes some 300,000 household yards, explained Nelso Companoini, doctor of agricultural sciences and executive secretary of Cuba's National Urban Agriculture Group, who shared his views and knowledge with Granma International. How do you separate urban agriculture from conventional agriculture? For us, urban agriculture is a system for producing more food through popular participation and more organically. Agricultural toxins are not used, just organic fertilizers and biopesticides." Everything cultivated in the capital city comes under the heading of urban agriculture. In the provincial capitals, everything within a 10-kilometer radius of downtown qualifies. In larger towns, it is everything within a five-kilometer radius and for other towns everything within two kilometers. When the total area for the whole island is added together, urban agriculture covers 200,000 hectares, a surface area that is sufficient to produce vegetables, fruit trees and a large part of the animal protein. Naturally not all this area is currently being used and this is one of our objectives. Of the country's 169 municipalities, 167 are included in urban agriculture. Centro Habana and Habana Vieja cannot be included due to their high population densities, lack of space, water and architectural conservation. The group's specialists are constantly moving around the country. We have been altering the basis for friendly competition among provinces and municipalities, because this stimulates and encourages the producers. Now we can stipulate that in order for a municipality to qualify for the "good" category, it must be using 90% of its urban area either for food or woodland purposes. Planting flowers in the garden in front of a house is also a way of contributing to biodiversity. We don't want the land in cities and towns to become useless, full of weeds and gradually turning into breeding grounds for infectious elements. Many barren yards have become high-production vegetable gardens. There is a widespread idea that urban agriculture is producing vegetables, in pots using organic material. This was the main objective and the most obvious one but it involves more than this: fruit trees; grains (rice, beans, corn); root vegetables like cassava root; plantains; the keeping of animals; flowers; ornamental plants; beekeeping. Some 208,000 people are working in this kind of agriculture, the group includes young people under age 30 (21,357); retired people (29,570); and women (24,452). What is the role of urban agriculture in saving native fruit trees? The work in urban yards is aimed precisely at recuperating the seeds of Cuban species that would otherwise be lost. This contributes to conserving biodiversity. We have developed a program along with the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) to encourage work in household yards. People can plant what they like we don't force anyone into anything, nor do we want to control what they produce. We just offer them technical help. We investigate what kind of plants are produced by the population in every zone, which vitamins they contain, and which vitamins are lacking in the area to help advise on what seeds would be more suitable to produce a better nutritional balance. When one examines the foods that are distributed on the ration, one realizes that there is a large proportion of production in yards and small farms that is not taken into consideration in the official figures and that is used as personal food supplies. What we want to do with the CDR program is to promote household production, by offering professional help and the possibility of seed exchange on a local basis, and also stimulate production of native plant and animal genetic material. There are 1,300 nurseries, essentially in the agricultural cooperative production and service sector, dedicated to producing fruit seeds. But we need to increase the availability of seedlings, with a larger number of nurseries in urban farms. In this way we will lower the cost and make products more accessible to the Cuban public, those that are obtained through cross-breeding such as the mamey and the dwarf guava apple (a variety that develops quickly) would be more expensive. How do you insert farm animals in urban locations? The most important aspect of the people's movement of producing animal protein is that the kind of animal raised should suit the conditions of the particular location, so as not to affect the surrounding environment. Hens, rabbits and goats are suited to areas that are mainly on the outskirts of cities, in small farms or in yard. It is important that they are not breeds that require industrial feed, as this would encourage the theft of that product. The Institution for Ornithological Research has managed - by crossing an egg-laying hen with a Cuban hen - to produce what is known as a farmhouse hen. Initially this bird was produced for the mountains, so that its inhabitants would have the chance to produce eggs without having to make large imports, but with the urban agriculture movement we have extended the breeding of these hens to the flatlands. We now have six million rural birds, with which we created an important reproductive base to continue increasing egg production. Last year 326 million eggs were produced by the population to feed their families. In the eastern regions sheep and goat farming has become very popular in order to produce milk for children, and this can also be given to those who can't drink cow's milk. Is it true that at the moment more rice is being produced by the population than through specialized production methods? Yes, that's true. Last year 180,000 tons of rice were harvested by the population, in small fields, a figure that was slightly above that of the rice companies. The fact is that drought is less harmful to small rice fields than to the large farms that need a lot of water. These farms also have high spending in dollars for the purchase of gasoline for the pesticide and fertilizer machinery. Water reservoirs that feed the rice paddies that are so important to the country were dry. Last year was the driest of the decade. Spring this year has improved the situation. You talked of large-scale vegetable production through urban agriculture, but in the capital aren't there areas that lack these products? In the case of vegetables, last year 1.6 million tons were produced nationwide. In 2001 the target is to exceed two million. We have 7,228 hectares of nurseries and organic farms producing from between 17 and 23 kilograms per square meter, respectively. Vegetables are also being grown on more than 11,000 hectares of small plots of land or yards. The national average for daily per capita consumption was 411 grams in 2000, larger than the minimum requirement of 350 stipulated by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). However, the global figures hide regional differences. In central provinces such as Sancti Sp�ritus and Cienfuegos, and in Ciego de Avila a little further east, vegetables are more widely available. However, in the capital, in order to achieve an abundance of vegetables production needs to be extremely good. A city with more than two million inhabitants needs to use science and technology to obtain, in the limited number of empty spaces, superior harvests per square meter. Another problem in the city is the lack of water to irrigate plants. There are places which have the correct characteristics to produce vegetables but don't have the necessary water. In the capital 120,500 tons were sown last year. If the same quantity were taken to Sancti Sp�ritus, there would be vegetables all over the place. We believe that the best thing about urban agriculture in the capital is its integral development. An organizational infrastructure is being created to integrate popular production with more advanced areas of organic production.
