The Structures of Organopónicos

The structures of organopónicos vary from garden to garden. Some are run by employees of the state; others are run cooperatively by the gardeners themselves. The reliance on the state government cannot be overlooked. The government provides the community farmers with the land and the water. The gardens can buy from the government key materials such as organic composts, seeds and irrigation parts, as well as "biocontrols" such as beneficial insects and plant-based oils that work as pesticides. These biological pest and disease controls are produced in some 200 government centers across the country.


Photo: Carly at Neponset Watershed

All garden crops such as beans, tomatoes, bananas, lettuce, okra, eggplant and taro are grown intensively within the city using only organic farming methods since these are the only methods permitted in the urban parts of Havana. No chemicals are used in 68 percent of Cuban corn, 96 percent of cassava, 72 percent of coffee and 40 percent of bananas. Between 1998 and 2001, chemicals were reduced by 60 percent in potatoes, 89 percent in tomatoes, 28 percent in onion and 43 percent in tobacco.

In Venezuela, the socialist government of Hugo Chavez 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 as it has in Cuba. Unlike Cuba, where organopónicos arose from the bottom-up out of necessity, the Venezuelan organopónicos are clearly a top-down initiative based on Cuba's success.

Another problem for urban agriculture in Venezuelan is the high amounts of pollution in major Venezuelan urban areas. At the Organoponico Bolivar I, a technician comes every 15 days to take a reading from the small pollution meter in the middle of the garden.


Photo: Tavallai

It's important to acknowledge that Cuba's organopónicos are not entirely replicable in other countries. Cuba remains a state-dominated society with a high degree of social control. The question is whether a more liberal society without that kind of central command structure would be able to respond as effectively to a sudden breakdown in the food system.

Urban Agriculture has emerged in Cuba as a very successful, if partial, solution to the food availability problem. The aim of this paper is to analyze the technological, political, historical, and economic underpinnings of this phenomenon in Cuba, and the extent to which the Cuban experience provides potential lessons to the rest of the world.

Source: wikipedia.org, sagepub.com

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Organopónicos - Urban Agriculture

The original hydroponic units, long cement planting troughs and raised metal containers, were filled with composted sugar waste and hydroponicos became organopónicos.


Photo: organoponico.com

Organopónicos are a system of urban organic gardens in Cuba. They often consist 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 provide access to job opportunities, a fresh food supply to the community, neighborhood improvement and beautification of urban areas.

The rapid expansion of urban agriculture in the early 1990s included the colonisation of vacant land both by community and commercial groups. The basic principle of raised bed gardening was applied to the construction of new 'organopónicos'. The most common materials used were the fossilised coral substrate, and asbestos sheets. In Havana, organopónicos are found in vacant lots, old parking lots, abandoned building sites, spaces between roads.

Organopónicos first arose as a community response to lack of food security after the collapse of the Soviet Union. They are publicly functioning in terms of ownership, access and management, but heavily subsidized and supported by the Cuban government.


Photo: AndyGoodwin

Organopónico buried its hydroponic roots and came to mean an urban and organic market garden. Some are run by Minagri employees, some are co-operatives. Most organopónicos are state-owned, but very small ones may be private. Yvonne Otero Cruz has packed the patio of her substantial colonial-style house in Santa Clara with exotic plants for interior decoration. She also creates a marvellous variety of decorations from dried flowers in a cramped attic. The very existence of any market for her products underlines the fact that happier days have returned to the town.

An organopónico is very efficient in getting food to the people who need it by avoiding transportation from the countryside farms. These producers sell their products in the same place where they produce them, avoiding taxes so in general their prices are lower, and in fact allowing producers to make a good income growing.

Sources: wikipedia.org, cubasupport.com

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