National Association of Small Farmers

Abbreviation ANAP
Formation 1961
Type NGO
Purpose Agriculture
Membership
 331,874 [1]
Official language
 Spanish
President
 Orlando Lugo Fonte
Website http://www.campesinocubano.anap.cu

The National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP) (Spanish: Asociación Nacional de Agricultores Pequeños) is a cooperative federation dedicated to promoting the interests of small farmers in Cuba. ANAP has over 300,000 members.[2]

History

ANAP was formed in 1961 and its membership was limited to farmers whose land holdings were less than 67 hectares.[3] The Cuban government supported ANAP by providing interest-free loans to its members.[4] Second Agrarian Reform Law of October 1963, introduced the State control over medium and large (over 67 hectares) agricultural estates. While medium and large farms accounting 11.4 million hectares of land were put under control of the newly created State-controlled National Land Reform Institute (INRA), small farmers, owning 7.2 million hectares of land, were organized in ANAP association.[5]

In 1966 together with the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) the FMC-ANAP Mutual Aid Brigades were established aiming to help rural women become more economically active outside the home. FMC-ANAP brigades increased available rural labour force at critical moments in the agricultural cycle, and were instrumental in the campaign to increase the sugarcane harvest in Cuba[6]

In 1977 ANAP supported the gradual transformation of the private sector. Individual farmers were endorsed to voluntarily join production co-operatives. By 1987 co-operative farms were accounting for 63% of private land holdings. Altogether 1,400 co-operative farms had 68,000 co-operative members.[7]

Currently ANAP members produce 52% of the vegetables, 67% of the corn, and 85% of the tobacco grown in Cuba [8]

Activities

ANAP provides training, agricultural extension and other services to its members. Federation often negotiates with Cuban government on prices of agricultural production, credits, and other farmers' interests.[8]

Internationally ANAP cooperates with NGOs, mainly from Canada and Europe. In 1995 the Cuban Organic Agriculture Exchange Program was started in cooperation with the US organization the Institute for Food and Development Policy.[9]

See also

Agriculture in Cuba

References

  1. ↑ ANAP website
  2. ↑ "ANAP: campesinos farm 25% of Arable land.(National Association of Small Farmers". Cubanews. 2003-06-01. Retrieved 2008-12-31.
  3. ↑ "Organization and Performance of Cuban Agriculture at Different Levels of State Intervention". Cuba in Transition, Vol. 3. August 1993. Retrieved 2009-01-05.
  4. ↑ Warnock, John W. (1987). The Politics of Hunger: The Global Food System. Routledge. p. 288. ISBN 0-458-80630-7.
  5. ↑ Furtado, Celso (1976). Economic Development of Latin America: Historical Background and Contemporary Problems. Cambridge University Press. p. 288. ISBN 0-521-29070-8.
  6. ↑ Diana Maury Robin, Ira Jaffe (1999). Redirecting the Gaze: Gender, Theory, and Cinema in the Third World. SUNY Press,. p. 94. ISBN 0-7914-3993-3.
  7. ↑ Jeffries, Ian (1996). A Guide to the Economies in Transition. Routledge. p. 714. ISBN 0-415-13684-9.
  8. 1 2 Sinclair, Minor; Martha Thompson (2007). "Agricultural Crisis and Transformation". A Contemporary Cuba Reader: Reinventing the Revolution. Rowman & Littlefield,. p. 158. ISBN 0-7425-5507-0.
  9. ↑ A Look at Cuban NGOs

External links

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