Reality Cheques 41skills and resources for the imported inputs. It also emphasizes the diversification
of agriculture, oxen to replace tractors, Integrated Pest Management to replace
pesticides, and the promotion of better cooperation among farmers both within
and between communities. It has taken time to succeed. Calorific availability was
2600 kilocalories per day in 1990, fell disastrously to between 1000–1500 kilo-
calories per day soon after the transition, leading to severe hunger, but subse-
quently rose to 2700 kilocalories per day by the end of the 1990s.
Two important strands to sustainable agriculture in Cuba have emerged. First
intensive organic gardens have been developed in urban areas – self-provisioning
gardens in schools and workplaces (autoconsumos), raised container-bed gardens
(organoponicos) and intensive community gardens (huertos intensivos). There are
now more than 7000 urban gardens, and productivity has grown from 1½kg per
square metre to nearly 20kg per square metre. Second, sustainable agriculture is
encouraged in rural areas, where the impact of the new policy has already been
remarkable. More than 200 village-based and artisanal Centres for the Reproduc-
tion of Entomophages and Entomopathogens have been set up for biopesticide
manufacture. Each year, they produce 1300 tonnes of B.t. sprays for lepidoptera
control, nearly 800 tonnes of Beaveria sprays for beetle control, 200 tonnes of
Verticillium for whitefly control and 2800 tonnes of Trichoderma, a natural enemy.
Many biological control methods are proving more efficient than pesticides. Cut
banana stems baited with honey to attract ants are placed in sweet potato fields,
and have led to control of the sweet potato weevil. There are 170 vermicompost
centres, the annual production of which has grown from 3 to 93 thousand tonnes.
Crop rotations, green manuring, intercropping and soil conservation have all been
incorporated into polyculture farming.
At the forefront of the transition towards sustainable agriculture has been the
Grupo de Agricultura Organica, formerly known as the Asociación Cubanes Agri-
cultural Organica, formed in 1993. GAO brings together farmers, field managers,
field experts, researchers and government officials to help spread the idea that
organic-based alternatives can produce sufficient food for Cubans. Despite great
progress, there remain many difficulties, including proving the success of the alter-
native system to sceptical farmers, scientists and policy makers, developing new
technologies sufficiently quickly to meet emergent problems, coordinating the
many actors to work together, the need for continued decentralization of decision
making to farmer level, and the appropriate land reform to encourage investment
in natural asset-building.^47
The Swiss National Policy for Sustainable Agriculture
The Swiss Federal Agricultural Law was revised in 1992 to target subsidies towards
ecological practices, and then radically amended in 1996 following a national ref-
erendum in which 78 per cent of the public voted in favour of change.^48 The main