Кубаның қалалық егіншілік жүйесі: органопоника

Cuban urban agriculture system

Organopónicos or organoponics is a system of urban agriculture using organic gardens. It originated in Cuba and is still mostly focused there. It often consists of low level concrete walls filled with organic matter and soil, with lines of drip irrigation laid on the surface of the growing media. Organopónicos is a labour intensive form of local agriculture. Organopónico farmers employ a wide variety of agroecological techniques including integrated pest management, polyculture, and crop rotation. Most organic materials are also produced within the gardens through composting. This allows production to take place with few petroleum based inputs. Organopónicos first arose as a community response to lack of food security during the Special Period after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It is publicly functioning in terms of ownership, access, and management, but heavily subsidized and supported by the Cuban government.

During the Cold War, the Cuban economy relied heavily on support from the Soviet Union. In exchange for sugar, Cuba received subsidized petroleum, petroleum products, agrochemicals (such as fertilizers and pesticides), and other farm products. Moreover, approximately 50% of Cuba's food was imported. Cuba's food production was organized around Soviet style, large scale, industrial agricultural collectives. Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba used more than 1 million tons of synthetic fertilizers and up to 35,000 tons of herbicides and pesticides per year. Thousands of new urban individual farmers called parceleros (for their parcelas, or plots) emerged. They formed and developed farmer cooperatives and farmers markets. These urban farmers were supported by the Cuban Ministry of Agriculture (MINAGRI), who provided university experts to train volunteers in the use of biopesticides and beneficial insects. Without artificial fertilizers, hydroponic equipment from the Soviet Union was no longer usable. Instead, this was converted for the use of organic gardening. The original hydroponic units, long cement planting troughs and raised metal containers, were filled with composted sugar waste, thus turning hidropónicos ("hydroponics") into organopónicos. The rapid expansion of urban agriculture in the early 1990s included the colonization of vacant land both by community and commercial groups. In Havana, organopónicos were created in vacant lots, old parking lots, abandoned building sites and even spaces between roads.

In 2009, more than 35,000 hectares (over 87,000 acres) of land are being used in urban agriculture in Havana alone. Havana produces enough food for each resident to receive a daily serving of of fruits and vegetables. The urban agricultural workforce in Havana has grown from 9,000 in 1999 to 23,000 in 2001 and more than 44,000 in 2006. Overall, however, approximately 16% of food is imported from abroad. However, as of 2018, organopónicos are remain an active component of the Cuban agricultural system.

In Venezuela, the socialist government is trying to introduce urban agriculture to the populace. In Caracas, the government has launched Organoponico Bolivar I, a pilot program to bring organopónicos to Venezuela. Urban agriculture has not been embraced in Caracas. Unlike Cuba, where organopónicos arose from the bottom up out of necessity, the Venezuelan organopónicos are a top down initiative based on Cuba's success. Another problem for urban agriculture in Venezuela is the pollution in major urban areas. At the Organoponico Bolivar I, a technician reads a pollution meter in the garden every 15 days.