Cuba's inward-looking development policies: towards sustainable agriculture (1990-2008)

While most Latin American countries followed outward-looking policies of agrarian development during the 1990s, Cuba shifted towards food self-provisioning, internal liberalisation and sustainable small farming to face the harsh crisis that followed the socialist demise of the late 1980s. Although it was an indispensable response to the worst crisis in Cuban history, Cuba is today one of the few countries experimenting with alternative development on a national scale. By considering the current context of globalisation in which free trade agreements and progressive agrarian liberalisation have created asymmetrical trade relations, increasing import dependency and vulnerability for small farmers in less developed countries, this paper aims at answering the following questions: 1. Which were the main policies implemented under inward-looking agrarian development in Cuba between 1990 and 2008? 2. What were the changes experienced in agriculture production patterns and land structures prompted by inward-looking development in Cuba? 3. To what extent these new patterns of production and land decentralisation opened opportunities for sustainable small farming production?