Peasantry and State in Milk Production in Cuba: Productive Forms, Technological Matrix, and Supply

After the Cuban Revolution, dualities were established between the productive forms of agriculture considered appropriate to each historical moment. Another contradiction was generated by the technological matrices and their relationships with different productive forms. The milk supply has been a priority since 1959, with intense efforts developed on large state farms. Even with the attempt to produce on pasture, the conventional model prevailed. The “agroecological revolution” occurred during the Special Period after 1990, among peasants. Simultaneously, however, agroecological dairy farming was attempted on state farms. The participation of the non-state sector in agricultural production increased greatly from the 1990s onwards, with state agricultural production remaining important, even though now secondary. In this work, both peasant fincas and state-owned vaquerías are studied in terms of dairy farming, social reproduction, and agroecology. They are characterised and differentiated from production, economic, social, and organisational perspectives. Evaluating the interrelations between the productive forms, scale, and the technological matrix helps to identify a productive, socioeconomic, and technological strategy for the sustainable supply of milk.