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Insights from the Campesino..its January edition, the Journal of Peasant Studies (JPS) documents the agroecology movement in Cuba. The article shows how peasant farmers have been able to boost food production via environmentally friendly methods. According to the authors, agroecology has played an important role in helping Cuba survive the economic crisis caused by the collapse of the socialist bloc in Europe and the strengthening of the US trade embargo. The academic article has been written by Peter Rosset, together with members of Cuba’s peasant agriculture movement. Here are some of the main points from the article:
1.Agroecology has become increasingly popular with grassroots organisations, peasant groups and rural social movements such as La Via Campesina (LVC) in recent years.
2.Agroecology is seen differently by different actors. However, it generally emphasises “the adaption and application of the principles in accordance with local realities”, where real attempts are made to increase soil fertility through green strategies. This is different from organic farming in developed countries, which is often misleading. For example, toxic inputs are substituted with less noxious ones. Moreover, this type of substitution does not ensure produce become organic as the land it has been farmed on has suffered from years of chemical inputs.
3.In recent years, there have been violent fluctuations in the prices of petroleum based inputs; placing these products out of the reach of peasant farmers and acting as a barrier to entry. Agroecology offers an alternative to resource scarce farmers because greener inputs are likely to be cheaper
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