Development & Aid, Headlines, Latin America & the Caribbean

AGRICULTURE-CUBA: Boosting Genetic Diversity

Patricia Grogg

SANTA CLARA, Cuba, Feb 2 2005 (IPS) - Small farmers and researchers in Cuba are working together to bolster genetic diversity in agriculture through a seed improvement programme that has come up with strong results.

"We had seeds, but when we went to the university we found that ours did not provide good yields," Pedro Rodríguez, a farmer in the central Cuban province of Villa Clara, told IPS. "Besides, we learned that there were pest-resistant varieties of crops that could be planted in conditions that are far from optimum."

As he talked, Rodríguez continued to move down his long green rows of beans. "We have planted 125 different varieties of beans here, which we are growing naturally – in other words, in the conditions offered by nature, to see which ones perform the best in the worst conditions."

Once the beans have been harvested, each variety will be identified by a number, so that no one is influenced by well-known names of plants, and they will be sold at an open-air market where local farmers and their families shop for seeds.

These "genetic diversity fairs" are a festive occasion where customers can taste dishes prepared with the product on exhibit.

The fairs promote the sharing of experiences among the university graduates running the seed improvement programme and local farmers, who select the seeds that best fit their tastes and the specific conditions on their land.

The farmers then plant the varieties that they have chosen and, along with the researchers, evaluate the results at harvest time. The process includes training in basic techniques in genetic experimentation, which the farmers are taught in a simple, hands-on manner.

The system allows rural communities access in the space of just a few months to a wide variety of genetic materials, disseminated through the fairs or through informal exchanges between farmers, as part of the search for higher yields and improved resistance and flavour.

At the same time, the small farmers’ participation in the entire process boosts their self-esteem, creative capacity, organisational skills, and sense of autonomy, while improving their incomes and living standards.

"When people are given opportunities, the country grows. People should participate in the process of reaching decisions on technology aimed at strengthening yields – that’s the way to go about it, not by importing food," Humberto Ríos, a professor and researcher at the National Institute of Agricultural Sciences (INCA), commented to IPS.

Ríos heads the "participatory" seed improvement programme that INCA launched in 1999 with financial support from the Ottawa, Canada-based International Development Research Centre.

Currently, the project is also backed by the Canadian International Development Agency and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, whose support includes the introduction of new technologies for the preservation of harvests in tightly sealed metal silos, which are manufactured in small workshops set up in rural communities.

According to José Oliveri, the head of a farming cooperative in the province of Villa Clara, whose members are also involved in the project, the silos have played a decisive role in increasing the productivity of local farmers.

"In the past, a cyclone would hit, the roof would fly off, and our harvest would get wet. But that doesn’t happen anymore," he said.

"The silos also protect our grain and beans from pests. This gives us a great sense of security," said Oliveri, who added that by late 2004, 328 silos had been sold to farmers in the region.

Felix Senén Martínez with the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP) said the project has generated "great enthusiasm and motivation" among farmers, who are keen on diversifying production with varieties of plants that are resistant to the high temperatures and drought that have plagued Cuba in the past few years.

The seed improvement programme was first implemented in the western provinces of Pinar del Río and Havana, and later extended to farming communities in Holguín and Villa Clara, which are 700 and 270 km, respectively, from the capital.

Similar joint efforts at genetic diversification involving both academics and farmers have been carried out for years in other countries of Latin America, as well as Asia and Africa, in regions where climate and soil conditions are especially challenging for small and medium agricultural producers.

The strategy seeks to bolster both quantity and quality of production of basic grains and legumes, in line with the specific characteristics of each region. "There are no good or bad seeds, but rather seeds for different environments and tastes," said Ríos.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations reports that although around a quarter of a million plant varieties are available for use in agriculture worldwide, less than three percent are actually cultivated today.

That means the world’s food supply depends on some 150 plant species, just 12 of which provide three-fourths of the food consumed globally, and over half of which come from a limited number of varieties of three crops: rice, wheat and maize.

The limited variety of crops used in modern agriculture has led to an alarming reduction in the diversity of plants available for research and development, a trend that along with the growing industrialisation of agriculture is blamed for what is known as "genetic erosion", warns FAO.

The "disuse" of plant varieties, the U.N. agency warns, leads to "neglect and possibly extinction", in a world where millions of poor people depend on plant crops to meet up to 90 percent of their needs for food, fuel, medicines, shelter and transport.

An estimated 1.4 billion people, mainly poor peasant farmers, use and improve their own seeds, which "helps to maintain and enhance the genetic diversity of crops," underlines FAO.