Campesino a Campesino Movement

1. Campesino a CampesinoMovement

2. Organized People • Access to productive land • Importance of secure land tenure • Access to a guaranteed market • Empowerment of communities & social organization of production • Campesina/family agriculture as a base for economic development • Mobilization of indigenous knowledge

3. Asociación Nacional de Agricultores Pequeños 1961

4. Unlike so many other countries, in Cuba there is no risk that peasants will disappear • Their principal ally is the State, which gave land, credit, subsidized prices, markets, AND fosters campesino identity

5. Origins of Campesino a Campesino Movement • 1972 World Neighbors & soil conservationist Don Marcos Orozco trained Kaqchikel Mayan campesinos in Guatemala as farmer-extensionists • Lack of trust of outside intervention • Carried out own experiments on own plots, then taught neighbors by demonstration & small-scale experimentation

6. Kaqchikel promotors put on village workshops using theory & hands-on experience • Visiting campesinos trained, then returned to their own countries • Mexico, Honduras, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua

7. C a C in Cuba • 1995 ANAP invited Mexican C a C to sponsor a workshop in Cuba • 1996 1st C a C workshop in Cuba • Began with urban campesinos around Havana • Bread for the World (German NGO) supported teaching the methodology • Links cooperatives, campesino-promotors, facilitators, & program coordinators

8. “People worked out of pure solidarity & altruism. At that moment Cuba was going through a very critical period. Our urban economy had hit bottom. We started giving workshops & gave people three months to put what they learned into practice”

9. C a C Agroecology Movement Integrated into ANAP • In 1997 ANAP sponsored the VII Regional Congress of the Campesino a Campesino movement • In 2000 ANAP began its promotion of the agroecological program in the Province Villa Clara & held the 1st national C a C promotor meeting in Villa Clara

10. C a C Philosophy • Based on theoretical & practical work of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire • Horizontal communication between learner & teacher • Praxis of reflection- action-reflextion for political consciousness & social transformation • “Do more with less”

11. Why Campesino a Campesino? • It is an efficient method to transmit knowlege horizontally with potential to join together capacity and mobilization of campesino organization

12. Horizontal Teaching & Learning

13. C a C is a participatory process involving campesinos • The most important actor is the promotor— a productive leader who experiments, is a teacher, and receiver of knowledge • Promotion through practical demonstration, “learning by doing” is the central axis for the process

14. Campesino a Campesino Program in Cuba 133,052 216 95,000 27 8000

15. Promotors are campesinos & members of cooperatives who live by their work and assume a commitment to solidarity with their associates • They promote by teaching & demonstrating agroecological techniques • Their effectiveness is measured by techniques applied in the promotor’s finca as pedagogical tools & the number of campesinos who apply the tecniques

16. Yeikel, 18, Youth Worker

18. How is it Done? • Begin slowly and at a small scale • Achieve rapid and recognizable success • Limit the introduction of technologies • Develop a multiplier effect • Workshops as a means to demonstrate methods & techniques

19. Nearly all C a C production is organic • Agroecological knowledge generated is the basis for methodology & dissemination of techniques, but ALSO challenges the centralized, hierarchical structures of formal agriculture

20. To take maximum advantage of the resources of the finca Production in harmony with the environment Campesino A Campesino Improved production with reduction of costs & increase in campesino income Integration of the family and support for the campesino Development of local culture

22. What Makes It All Work? • Cuba maintains relative economic equality for all, offers State assistance in the form of free education, free health care, and guaranteed employment, sends its highly skilled medical and environmental specialists around the world to help other nations, and in the wake of Soviet collapse and the sudden loss of essential resources, put into place an environmentally sustainable, chemical-free, organic agricultural system that turns attention to the causes of inequity, poverty, and food scarcity

23. The work involved in revolutionizing food production requires careful integration of laboratory testing and analysis, scientific knowledge, experimentation, and practical experience. Essential to this effort is its recognition as a popular movement oriented to social production. Thus prioritization of the social good over individual accumulation constitutes one factor that makes the system work.

24. Cuban agroecology maintains a self-sustaining production system, remarkably knowledgeable people, and a totally integrated methodology for producing food—most fields are intercropped to capture the benefits of their symbiotic relationships and to control pests. All inputs, from fertilizer to biopesticides, are created on the farm and used within it. People are committed to food self-sufficiency, rather than profit, and their hearts and souls are devoted to that end. They are passionate about ensuring that everyone has food and that foods produced are healthy and chemical free.

25. The success of organic technologies rests in the social matrix. One of the goals is to equalize relations between technicians and campesinos. Extensionists and other professionals value local, traditional knowledge and they and the campesinos work cooperatively to find solutions. A social consciousness places people and nature above material wealth. It is a system that is socially just, grounded in culture, and aims for equity.

26. Elimination of food shortages and the positive results serve as a social incentive to persist. Numerous people informed us that material accumulation was not their goal, but rather a social benefit to the entire population. Our site visits included a number of producers who grow food for others, such as cooperatives, schools, and hospitals.

27. Globalizamos la Lucha!