Urban Agriculture in Cuba Photo: Friedman-Rudovsky

In 1991 the Soviet Union (USSR) collapsed. The superpower’s dissolvement had ripple effects throughout the world. One country in particular was hard hit by the fall of the USSR. That country, Cuba, now lost its most important political and economic ally. Within a few years of the USSR’s collapse the Cuban economy stalled. In 1996 the United States passed the Helms-Burton Act. This act placed a massive embargo on Cuba. The act was placed in the hopes of “preventing pharmaceuticals, manufactured goods, and food imports from entering the country” (Schiffman, 2013). Helms-Burton was largely a success. The act pushed Cuba further into economic turmoil. The island entered what many historians describe as “the Special Period.” Yet the seemingly poor island nation was able to overcome this incredibly difficult time.

Cuba is now one of the most politically and economically stable countries in the Caribbean. Particularly, Cuba presents to the Caribbean a model for sustainable agriculture (Schiffman, 2013). This paper will discuss how and why Cuba can be described as a model for sustainable agriculture. The paper will also compare Cuba’s agricultural system and history to that of Haiti’s.

Haiti was chosen as a comparison because it is often presented to be as an example of economic and political instability. The factors at the root of Haiti’s conditions are complex. However, Haiti and Cuba do have several characteristics in common. The two islands share similar histories. Both countries were victims of colonialism and later foreign meddling after their respective independence movements. Both islands also have histories of overthrowing oppressive systems. There are clear lessons that Haiti can draw from Cuba.



This paper’s chronology begins with Cuba’s early colonial agricultural history. The paper will then follow with Haiti’s own early colonial agricultural history. Afterwards, the paper will analyse both Cuba and Haiti’s current agricultural systems. To conclude, the paper will describe the lessons Haiti can draw from Cuba’s agricultural system. This paper defines sustainable agriculture as an agricultural system meant to meet the food and textile needs in the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. In addition, a country with a sustainable agricultural system is able to meet these needs through self-sufficiency. Self-sufficiency being the ability of a country to produce food for its citizens.

Painting Depicting Awarak/Taino People Fishing. Source: Carriacou (2019)

Cuba’s agricultural history began with the Arawak and Taino people, the first known inhabitants of the island. The Arawak and Taino had practiced varying farm and hunting practices. For communities that relied primarily on subsistence farming, produce such as cassava and yuca were popular staples (“Lifestyle of Arawak/ Taino”, 2019). In 1492, Spanish boats landed on the island’s shore. The colonizers on that boat brought with them a plan to conquer the Natives and to colonize the island (Hunt, n.d., para. 3). Once their conquest of the Natives was underway, the Spanish began to establish their colonial agricultural system.

Cuba’s early colonial agricultural system was dominated by sugar cane (Hunt, n.d., para. 3). The sugar cane was brought over by Diego Velázquez, another Spanish colonizer, from recently conquered Santo Domingo (later renamed Haiti). Sugarcane quickly became a major cash crop in Cuba. Even the leftovers of sugarcane production was valuable. For example, plantation owners often sold the fermented sugar remnants enslaved Africans concocated (Hunt, n.d., para. 3; Howard, 2009). These fermented sugar remnants were used to make molasses and rum (Howard, 2009). As demand for sugar grew production followed. By the end of the 1600s there were about 60 sugarcane mills on the island (Hunt, 2019, para. 4 ).

Briefly in the mid-1700s, Great Britain conquered Havana. Priest (2016) describes what happened during this brief conquest: “Sugar production received a major boost when the British occupied the port of Havana in the summer of 1762 and brought in an estimated 4,000–10,000 slaves (enslaved Africans) before ceding the port back to Spain in the Treaty of Paris in February 1763” (Priest, 2016). After recapturing its colony, Spain further invested in Cuba’s sugar production. A few years later, Cuba became one of the largest producers of sugar in the world. The island would have been the global leader if not for the productivity of another colony, again Santo Domingo (Hunt, n.d., para. 5). However, Cuba’s second place in world rankings changed in 1791. Priest (2016) described one key reason as to why that change occurred:

“The great expansion of Cuban sugar and slavery came later, however, coinciding with the Haitian Revolution of 1791–1804. The Revolution, lead by former slaves, brought about an abrupt deterioration of sugar production in Saint-Domingue, creating a window of opportunity for Cuban planters in the vacuum left by a major competitive Caribbean market. Within years, Spanish and French merchants began importing large number of slaves to Trinidad, leading to the founding of many sugar plantations, with vast acres of sugarcane put under cultivation” (Priest, 2016).

Spain and Cuba also benefited from Great Britain’s formal abolishment of slavery in 1807 (Priest, 2016). That following year in 1808, the U.S. banned the formal importation of enslaved Africans. Spain eventually agreed to end its role in the trade of enslaved Africans in 1818. Enslaved people played the most critical role in colonial agricultural activities. Even with the design of new technology, enslaved Africans’ forced labor was what brought fueled the sugar (Priest, 2016). By the end of Cuba’s formal practice of slavery in 1886, 780,000 Africans were brought to the island as enslaved people (Priest, 2016).

Enslaved Africans Cultivating Sugar Cane in Cuba. Source: “Cuban Sugar Industry” (2014)

By the turn of the 20th century, Cuba’s sugar mills were reduced from 2000 to 500. But even with the reduction of mills, production still went up. For example, in 1894 alone Cuba produced 1 million tons of sugar (Hunt, n.d., para. 6). But Spain’s hold on Cuba began to wane. For much of the mid to late 1800s, discussion of independence dominated the Cuban political sphere. At the time, the Spanish crown was experiencing a slow decline. Independence movements elsewhere in the Caribbean, and in Central and South America, further inspired factions of the Cuban elite to push for revolution. In the midst of those discussions, the presence of U.S. companies on the island were growing.

“During the 10 Years War (1868–78), many US companies arrived in order to modernize Cuba with their businesses establishing fairly heavy economic interest in Cuba for America. By 1894, the US owned most of Cuba’s sugar mills and imported most of the sugar to the US creating the tragedy of a one-crop economy predominantly supported by one country” (“Brief History of Cuba”, para. 3, n.d.). In 1898, the U.S. became a major ally to Cuba in its war for independence. This conflict was part of the larger Spanish-American war. U.S. troops later occupied Cuba until 1902 (“Brief History of Cuba”, para. 3, n.d.).

In 1902, Cuba became independent from Spain. But the country was not sovereign. Cuba adopted its new constitution in 1901. The US added the Platt Amendment which stated that Cuba has only a limited right to conduct its own foreign policy and the US has the right to intervene in Cuban affairs (“Brief History of Cuba”, para. 4, n.d.). The amendment did two things: it secured American business interests and fortified Washington’s political control in Cuba. Very few places showed how powerful American interests and sway was in Cuba than the island’s agricultural sector. In 1925 for example, Cuba produced 5 million tons of sugar products and most of the sugar went to the US (Hunt, n.d., para. 7).

But the new Cuban Republic, much like the Spanish Empire before it, could not contain growing factions seeking true independence. Under American neo-colonialism, a revolution was brewing. “In 1958, exports to the United States (mainly sugar) accounted for two thirds of Cuba’s exports” (Hunt, n.d., para. 5). Along with the US influence on price fluctuation, resentment among Cubans grew. By 1959, the Revolution led by the Communist Party of Cuba was a success.

At a memorial service march for victims of the La Coubre explosion in Havana, Cuba on March 5, 1960, from left to right: Fidel Castro, Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado, Che Guevara, Augusto Martínez Sánchez, Antonio Núñez Jiménez, William Alexander Morgan, and Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo.

Between 1959–1963 the ruling Cuban party introduced key land reform policies. Valdes Paz (2011) writes:

“ It is worth noting that at the beginning, the purpose of the agrarian history of the Cuban Revolution was to find a revolutionary solution to the agrarian issue originated in the republican stage, characterized by an agriculture dominated by large estates, a rural society that was extraordinarily backward and differentiated from urban society, and a low scientific and technological level of agricultural activities. Once the traditional agrarian issue had been settled in its fundamental aspects, the non-capitalist or socialist option (adopted in the early 1960s as a path towards the consolidation of national sovereignty, socio-economic development, the establishment a lower standard of inequality and the introduction of a people’s democracy) would lead to socialist transition strategies oriented to a more just and independent Cuban society” (Paz, 2011).

One of the reforms that Cuba embarked on was the establishment of the state agricultural sector (Valdes Paz, 2011). The land reforms Cuba embarked on were later challenged during the “Special Period.” But as described above, the island was able to overcome this period of economic instability and famine. How the island overcome these issues will be discussed later. But for now, the paper will describe Haiti’s agricultural history.

Just like in Cuba, the original habitats of Haiti were the Taino and Arawak people. And just like with the Taino and Arawaks in Cuba, the indigenous people of Haiti had various practices of collecting food (“Lifestyle of Arawak/ Taino”, 2019). On December 6th, 1492, Christopher Columbus landed on what was originally called Ayti (Shen, 2015). By 1514, the indigenous population on the island was on the verge of extinction. However, Spanish leaders decided to take an alternative route with their exploitation of the island. “Bartholomew (de las Casas), shocked by the treatment of ‘this most lovable and tractable people,’ begins importing African slaves as an alternate labor force” (Shen, 2015). In 1697, after years of growing presence, Spain recognized France’s eastern side colony of Santo Domingo (Shen, 2015). Then in the mid-1700s Santo Domingo’s sugar production began. By 1776 “Adam Smith writes that Saint-Domingue (Santo Domingo) is the most important of the sugar colonies of the West Indies’” (Shen, 2015).

A Battle During the Haitian Revolution Source: The Mary Sue

In 1791, after centuries of unsuccessful revolts, enslaved people in Santo Domingo led a massive uprising. By 1804, the uprising was a success and a constitution was written. Haiti was now an independent country of formerly enslaved people. But like with Cuba after their revolution with the Special Period, Haiti faced a great deal of hardship. In 1807, Haiti was split. In the North, Henry Christophe ruled. Meanwhile the South was ruled by Alexandre Petion. Christophe maintained the plantation style agriculture from the previous colonial era. However, Petion took a similar route that Cuba did post-Communist Party Revolution. Petion instituted an aggressive land redistribution program (McKey, 2016). Now, formerly enslaved people became small scale farmers. But by the time that Haiti was reunited in 1820, it was forced to pay reparations to France in order to be recognized as a country (McKey, 2016).

Haiti’s reparations payment to France was one of the many factors that led to its weak agricultural infrastructure. One other factor was the military strategy formerly enslaved people’s used during the war for independence. During the Revolutionary War, enslaved people used guerrilla warfare to defeat European powers. They often burned their former masters’ plantations (“Slavery and the Haitian Revolution”, 2018). Another factor that led to Haiti’s weak agricultural system was the world’s response to the nation’s very existence. Though France later recognized Haiti as an independent nation, other countries did not. “Due to aversion towards Haiti, western nations boycotted Haiti and placed an embargo upon the nation. Haiti had no trade relations, diplomatic relations, or official recognition, so Haiti could not access markets for its products” (McKey, 2016). Haiti’s economy failed to get off the ground post independence.

In 1914 Haiti was invaded by the US. The US government’s interests in Haiti existed decades prior to the invasion. “As a potential naval base for the United States, Haiti’s stability concerned U.S. diplomatic and defense officials who feared Haitian instability might result in foreign rule of Haiti” (Office of the Historian, “U.S. Invasion and Occupation of Haiti, 1915–34”). By 1915, Haiti was forced into a treaty with the United States called the Haitian-American Treaty of 1915. Much like with the Platt Amendment and Cuba “the United States gained complete control over Haitian finances, and the right to intervene in Haiti whenever the U.S. Government deemed necessary” (Office of the Historian, “U.S. Invasion and Occupation of Haiti, 1915–34”). The 1914 invasion and the 1915 treaty ushered in Washington’s unequal and exploitative relationship with Haiti.

In recent years, the United States has become a leading figure in Haiti’s agricultural development. Specifically, the US is a leading exporter of rice to Haiti (Cohen, 2013). However, “food and agriculture are central to Haiti’s development. Agriculture employs 60 % of the workforce and three of every four low-income Haitians. It accounts for 28 % of gross domestic product (GDP)” (Cohen, 2013). While Haiti has a largely an agrarian economy, it heavily relies on food imports. Particularly imports from the US. The US has publicly pledged millions of dollar to fortify Haiti’s agricultural output. But in its execution, Washington’s policies are neo-mercantilist:

“This aim to maintain free access to the Haitian market for US food exports (particularly rice). At the same time, the United States continues to put restrictions on imports of Haitian apparel, the source of 80 % of the latter country’s export earnings — i.e. the hard currency that Haiti needs to pay for its food imports. The United States is by far Haiti’s largest foreign market” (Cohen, 2013).

As stated above, the factors that created the dire conditions currently facing Haiti and faced Cuba during its special period are very different. However, Haiti can still learn much from Cuba’s policy agriculture approach. The following section of this paper will look at how Cuba addressed its agricultural issues during and after the Special Period.

U.S. Marines with Haitian Citizen During U.S. Invasion of Haiti Source: Global Research

Cuba’s Special Period was experience debilitating for its people. “During this period, Cubans essentially experienced a famine: adults had an average daily protein intake of 15–20 g and lost an average of 5%–25% of their body weight” (Canadian Medical Association Journal, 2008). In addition, the island was facing an oil shortage. The lack of fuel, fertilizer, and other agricultural inputs led to a decrease in productivity. “According to statistical data, the per capita food production annual average growth was negative, by -5.1 percent, between 1986 and 1995” (Iozzi, 2016). Cuban citizens were forced to adapt to these now limited resources. Farmers began to use oxen traction as primary use of cultivation. Other producers moved closer to consumers. In cities, residents began to grow their own food on unproductive state owned land. Other city dwellers “used balconies, backyards, and roof terraces for cultivation and raising livestock” (Iozzi, 2016).

Organic farmer Miguel Angel Salcines inspects vegetable planting beds at the 25-hectare Alamar farm. Photograph: Roger Atwood. Source: The Guardian

The Cuban government moved quickly to build upon its citizens’ spontaneous initiative. In 1994, Cuba established the Department for Urban Agriculture at the Ministry of Agriculture. Then in 1998, the country established the National Group for Urban and Sub-urban Agriculture (GNAU). “The aim of the Cuban leadership was to improve agricultural production and cut, if not eliminate, food imports into the country” (Iozzi, 2016). The Cuban government further modernized its agriculture system in the 2000s and 2010s. In 2008, the Raul Castro government adopted Law Decree 259. This Law Decree was a land reform policy aimed at distributing usufruct of unproductive parcels. Lineamientos, a reform package aimed at modernizing the Cuban economy placed a large emphasis on agricultural production was adopted in 2011. Then in 2012 Law Decree 300 was enacted. This law decree provided funds for the construction of buildings on usufruct land, and the planting of forests and fruit trees (Iozzi, 2016).

Cuba’s agricultural policy approach has assisted it in achieving a high level of food security, especially compared to countries of similar income levels (Rivera and Swinnen, 2016). In addition, food insecurity in Cuba was high during the Special Period. By 2013 undernourishment decreased by 92%. In 1990, undernourishment was as high as 20%. But by 2016 that figure was 0.6%. Cuba’s high level of food security is most obvious when its compared to that of Haiti’s food insecurity. Most Haitians are food insecure. In 2013 it was conservatively estimated that about 20% of pre-school aged children faced undernourishment with the figure not improving much in recent years (Cohen, 2013; USAID, 2016). Again, the factors behind Haiti’s conditions are complex and its challenges do not start with its agricultural system. Like with Cuba, Haiti’s issues begin with exploitative foreign influence. One example of the disastrous consequences that foreign influence has had on Haiti happened in 1994.

That year then president Bill Clinton demanded that Haiti drop its tariffs on imported rice from 50% to 3%. This request came when the Clinton administration was attempting to reinstate Jean-Bertrand Aristide as president of Haiti. Haiti complied, its agricultural sector, its largest employer, slowly crumbled. For the next 10 years, rice production in Haiti decreased annually by 1% (Cohen, 2013). Meanwhile a powerful iron triangle of US rice farmers, millers, and traders quickly (under USA Rice Federation) benefited from the decreased tariffs (Cohen, 2013). For example, between 1995–2010, US rice farmers received $13 billion worth of subsidies (Cohen, 2013). In addition, a handful of rice traders control 70% of Haitian rice imports (Cohen, 2013). Clinton later “apologized” for his administration’s actions:

“Since 1981, the United States has followed a policy until the last year or so, we started rethinking it, that we rich countries that produce a lot of food should sell it to poor countries and relieve them of the burden of producing their own food, so thank goodness they can leap directly into the industrial era. It has not worked. It’s maybe been good for some of my farmers in Arkansas, but it has not worked. It was a mistake, it was a mistake that I was a party to. I am not pointing the finger at anybody. I did that. I have to live every day with the consequences of the lost capacity to produce a rice crop in Haiti to feed those people because of what I did. Nobody else.” (Clinton 2010).

Image of Haitians Receiving Rice Imports from the U.S. Source: Push Black

But Haiti still continues to struggle with food security. This even after Clinton’s “apology.” Haiti can greatly benefit from following some of the policies that Cuba has enacted. But its first step from addressing the needs of its agricultural system is ending its abusive relationship with the United States.