Bäuerliche Experimente in Kuba und ihre Bedeutung für eine nachhaltige Landwirtschaft

Summary

This paper aims to examine farmers’ perception on the contribution of farmers’ experiments to sustainable agriculture. Field research was conducted in Cuba and comprised semi-structured interviews with 72 farmers. Most Cuban farmers experimented with locally available resources. According to the farmers’ perception, resources, topics and methods were ecologically compatible and involved little risks. Through experimenting the respondents felt, that they increased the production and the degree of self-sufficiency. Farmers ensured that experiments contributed to improve the local farming system and thereby supported the sustainable development of agriculture.