Family Farms, Food Sovereignty and the Conservation of Agrobiodiversity in Cuba

This highly original volume investigates and documents the complex interactions between Cuba’s Man and Biosphere Reserves and the emergence of small family farms. The authors cover over two decades of dramatic changes in the political economy of agriculture and biodiversity conservation in Cuba, which provides a unique case study of sustainable agriculture. It shows how the agricultural biodiversity maintained in situ by family farms within protected areas provides a strategic source of seed and agrecological knowledge and practices. Thus, Biosphere Reserves have helped to promote food sovereignty through healthier and more diverse food production following the collapse of state farms and agricultural cooperatives in the early 1990s.

The book uses transdisciplinary methods, combining DNA studies, geo-referencing, ecological, agronomic, and socio-economic research, along with participatory methods to document ethnobotanical and farmer knowledge, revealing a rich store of agrobiodiversity maintained in landscapes, seed systems and nurseries managed by farmers. It covers a range of ecosystems and biocultural landscapes from arid tropics, tropical hillsides, montane rainforests, tropical savannas and coastal areas. It analyses how family farms in diverse Cuban ecosystems use biodiversity, agro-ecological knowledge and techniques to enhance the resilience of natural and agrarian landscapes in the face of climate change, natural disasters, and socio-economic and policy change.