[P2P-F] improving agro-production through peer learning

[Michel Bauwens]

related to our p2p-urbanism debate to food in cities, in the sense of
showing how structured horizontal learning can dramatically boost
productivity even without the use of digital technology

http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a932361952~f

Agroecology has played a key role in helping Cuba survive the crisis caused
by the collapse of the socialist bloc in Europe and the tightening of the US
trade embargo. Cuban peasants have been able to boost food production
without scarce and expensive imported agricultural chemicals by first
substituting more ecological inputs for the no longer available imports, and
then by making a transition to more agroecologically integrated and diverse
farming systems. This was possible not so much because appropriate
alternatives were made available, but rather because of the
Campesino-a-Campesino (CAC) social process methodology that the National
Association of Small Farmers (ANAP) used to build a grassroots agroecology
movement. This paper was produced in a 'self-study' process spearheaded by
ANAP and La Via Campesina, the international agrarian movement of which ANAP
is a member. In it we document and analyze the history of the
Campesino-to-Campesino Agroecology Movement (MACAC), and the significantly
increased contribution of peasants to national food production in Cuba that
was brought about, at least in part, due to this movement. Our key findings
are (i) the spread of agroecology was rapid and successful largely due to
the social process methodology and social movement dynamics, (ii) farming
practices evolved over time and contributed to significantly increased
relative and absolute production by the peasant sector, and (iii) those
practices resulted in additional benefits including resilience to climate
change.

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