Farmland in Cuba © Food First / Institute for Food and Development Policy

There are faultlines in the generally positive picture for social welfare in Cuba. The US embargo which denies Cuba access to international trade and credit acts as an impediment to human development. Although agribusiness lobbies in Congress have led to concessions for some single states to export food to Cuba, the limited amounts permitted are insufficient to overcome the country’s chronic food insecurity.

Inefficiencies of state-owned farms and water infrastructure limit production to just 20% of total food requirements. The shortage of affordable protein is the principal cause of very high incidence of anaemia, especially in the poorer eastern provinces where more than 50% of children are affected. The World Food Programme manages a long term project to address this problem but the impact of the 2008 spiral in food prices hit Cuba particularly hard.

There are about 250,000 small private farms in Cuba. Their efficiency relative to the large state farms is such that they account for 70% of production on less than a third of cultivated land. In belated recognition of reality, the government’s response to the food crisis is centred on leasing uncultivated state land for private use. Small farmers will also be allowed to purchase inputs independent of the state.

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