Maggie's Farm

Cuba Runs Out of Sugar

A big reason for Cuba's failing agricultural production is the invasion of the marabú shrub in fallow land that once produced sugar. In 1989, Cuba was still tied to the Soviet sugar daddy. It had a market for its sugar. Imported corn from the Soviet Union helped Cuba's milk production triple from 1961 to 1989.

Cuba lost its sugar market with the fall of the Soviet Union. The logical thing to do with that former sugar land would have been to change it to fields of corn or pasture, thus substituting for the corn that had been imported from the Soviet Union.

Instead, the former sugar land lay fallow. Invasion of the marabú shrub followed. This was no surprise as the marabú shrub, has long been known to invade fields after they have lain fallow for a year or two. C Wright Mills, in his 1960 book on Cuba, Listen Yankee, mentions the tendency of the marabú to take over fallow land, and how to deal with it.

But Fidel, who micromanages everything in Cuba, and who spent his childhood on a large farm, did nothing about the prospect of marabú invading the fallow sugar lands. And no one did anything in Cuba unless Fidel ordered it.

As a result a lot of Cuban agricultural land--a quarter to a half-- has been invaded by the marabú shrub. Result: milk production has fallen by two thirds from its 1989 peak, so it is about what it was in 1961. (From 1961 to present, milk production in Latin America has quintupled.)Result: sugar imports.

Add to that the dysfunctional economics of Cuba. This is what you get.

The Lost World, Part I (2014)
Contrary to what Michael Totten claims, Cubans know how to get rid of marabú. They have dealt with it for a century.