Cuba’s economy faces the dilemma that it still relies heavily on sugar cane for export revenues, while at the same it urgently needs an increase in local food production. For both purposes, biotechnologies for low input organic agriculture are now accompanied by the development of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The country’s state-led development has built up strong scientific capacities, yet the technology-driven approach also has its internal and external limitations.

Between the Cuban revolution in 1959 and the breakdown of the socialist bloc in 1990, Cuba’s economic development was moulded by two external forces. On the one hand, the US trade embargo deprived Cuba of its historically most important trading partner. On the other hand, and as a consequence, the country became a member of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON) in 1972. Cuba benefited from this alliance mainly due to the exchange of sugar above world market prices, enabling the country to accelerate its industrialization. But although the terms of trade were more favourable than those of other developing countries, Cuba’s development model ultimately proved to be one of dependence, too. The Cuban economy as a whole was characterized by a dualism between its relative modernity in terms of industrialization on the one hand and its function in the division of labour within the socialist bloc as a provider of raw agricultural commodities and minerals and as a net importer of both manufactured goods and foodstuffs on the other hand.

Hence, agriculture was developed and industrialized according to the needs within the Soviet bloc. The industrialized production especially of sugar cane in exchange for food and feed was based on large-scale monocropping and was heavily dependent on the import of petroleum and petroleum-derived agrochemicals, seed and machinery. At the end of the 1980s, 48 per cent of fertilizers and 82 per cent of pesticides were imported. An estimated 57 per cent of the total caloric consumption of the population had to be imported, with maximum imports of 49 per cent for rice and 100 per cent for other cereals.

Low input agriculture during the Special Period

To overcome food insecurity and dependence on food imports, the government launched a National Food Programme (NFP) in 1989. The main focus of this programme was to increase quickly the production of vegetables, plantains, roots and tubers by Low-External-Input and Sustainable Agriculture (LEISA). The major pillars of LEISA include Integrated Pest Management (IPM), intercropping and rational use of water. Biotechnology played an important role in this shift as it provided measures to substitute petroleum-based fertilizers and pesticides by biological means (see also the article by Jaffe in Monitor No. 17). Several products have entered Cuban agriculture:

• Biofertilizers: Nitrogen-fixing microorganisms are used, such as Azospirillium rhizobium for legumes and Azotobacter for non-symbiotic nitrogen-fixation in sugar cane and other grasses.
• Biological pest control: Insect pests are controlled by other insects or by microorganisms such as Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). Biopesticides are produced country-wide in 220 Centros de la Reproducción de los Entomófages y Entomopatógenos (CREEs) on an artisan scale as well as in brewer’s yeast factories using large-scale fermentation technologies.

Advanced agrobiotechnology gains weight

The main targets of Cuban agricultural biotechnology are spelled out by the diverging needs of the country’s agriculture: to increase cash crop and mainly sugar cane production on the one hand (see box) and to increase food production on the other. Carlos Borroto, agricultural director at the CIGB and head of the national agricultural biotechnology programme, claims that the state-led development strategy is free of any interference from commercial interests of transnational companies. Instead, it targets tropical crops and traits relevant to the countries specific agroecological circumstances. The following examples reflect the current research priorities:

• Micropropagation for high quality seeds. To become independent of seed imports, a system of 15 biofábricas with the capacity to produce 60 million in vitro plantlets and artificial seeds annually was established. The premise of these biofactories is to produce disease-free propagation material and to minimize external inputs like fertilizers and herbicides, but also like energy for the greenhouses and for sterilization of laboratory material. At the Instituto de Biotecnología de las Plantas (IBP), tissue culture protocols are developed for potatoes, sugar cane, plantains and bananas. Presently potato seeds at a cost of US$ 13 million are imported every year. The in vitro production of potato plantlets is expected to reduce these imports by 20 per cent per year to finally achieve self-sufficiency.
• Biopesticides and biofertilizers. A biological nematicide, especially useful in banana production, has been developed from the bacterium Sphingobacterium spiritivorum from plantain soil samples. CIGB has applied for a patent in Europe and will start commercialization in 2000.
• Detection of plant diseases and characterization of pests. Molecular diagnostic kits are being developed to detect plant diseases in sugar cane, tomato, potato, banana, pineapple and citrus.
• New methods and products. IBP Santa Clara has developed, patented and commercialized an antifungal and antiviral sugar cane by-product (Vitrofural) to substitute the energy-consuming sterilization (autoclavation) of the growth medium.
• Conservation of plant genetic resources. Linkage maps help to characterize genetic diversity of rice and sugar cane to exploit genetic diversity in plant breeding. Furthermore, biofábricas act as germplasm banks to conserve plant material relevant to specific agroecological zones.
• Plant varieties adapted to biotic and abiotic stress. The Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones de la Caña de Azucar (INICA) is developing sugar cane varieties with increased resistance to diseases, drought and salinity (see box).
• Transgenic plants. For nearly all important crop plants in Cuba, transgenic varieties are currently under development (see box). The main traits are resistance to insects, virus and fungi, and tolerance to the herbicide gluphosinate. Insect resistance will be mainly reached through the introduction of genes of endemic Bt varieties.

Note: Some crop varieties contain more than one transgenic trait. Bt: Bacillus thuringiensis
Source: Arencibia Rodgriguez, A. D. & Oramas Frenes, P. (1999)

Genetically modified organisms in the making

About 85 per cent of Cuban transgenic crop research is directed at the internal market. While public concern about GMOs seems to be absent in Cuba, researchers and policy makers are aware of the conflicts caused elsewhere by this technology, especially in Europe. To prevent negative impacts on exports, transgenic sugar cane will therefore not be developed into fully commercialized products unless public perceptions change. Furthermore, while tobacco is generally applied as the model plant in transgenic research in other countries, Cuban institutions decided to refrain from using it, so as not to endanger the credibility of the country’s tobacco and cigar industry.

Two veterinary products based on genetic engineering are already commercialized and sold on international markets. Both are recombinant vaccines, Gavac against cattle tick caused by the parasite Babesia spp. and Vacoli against an enterotoxic E.coli. However, the first transgenic product that will reach human consumers in Cuba will be a genetically modified fish. For 2000, the CIGB announced the commercialization of a transgenic tilapia variety with increased growth. Future research objectives include plants to produce proteins for therapeutic applications, such as vaccines against hepatitis; cloning of animals; and pharming, the production of pharmaceutical proteins by animals.

Cashing in on biotechnology?

In 1998, the gross export revenues from pharmaceutical and medical products accounted for about US$ 130 million, and for the period from 1998 to 2003, Cuban officials estimate that the entire biotechnology sector had the potential to export more than US$ 800 million. Nevertheless, according to Maria Christina Pérez, biotechnology secretary of the Agencia de Ciencia y Technología (ACYT), it is not likely that agricultural biotechnology will contribute a large share to these earnings. So far, revenues have been generated from the sale of biological control agents, which will probably increase with the development of new products such as biological nematicides. Agrobiotechnology might indirectly play an economically important role by substituting expensive imports, as in the case of potato seed.

Agrobiotechnology is not only a question of research projects; it is also part of the world economy. In 1995, Cuba became a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and signed the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). Cuban researchers presently protect their inventions by patents, not only in Cuba but also in the USA and in Europe. As a consequence of the political decision to enter the global competition in advanced technologies, it is hoped that intellectual property rights (IPR) will strengthen the country’s bargaining position to obtain technologies needed for its own development. However, officials still complain that IPR are unacceptable from an ethical point of view. CIGB’s Borroto stresses that Cuba would only ask fees from those who can afford them while partners in developing countries would receive technologies for free.

Technology driven progress and its limitations

The willingness to embrace any new technology that may help to increase yields, is in line with the tradition of former socialist state-led development to achieve its macro-economic goals. Such a technology-driven approach will most probably also dominate the future of Cuba’s agrobiotechnology; however, its usefulness is questionable. In transgenic crop research for example, herbicide resistance is one of the common traits investigated for most crops (see box), while admittedly the country is short of herbicides. Soledad Diaz, president of ACYT, argues that the main purpose for this approach is to keep rank with international progress in this field and to master the techniques on its own. This strategy of concentrating on single technologies and products to further the entire sector was successful for Cuba’s medical biotechnology R&D. Yet these trajectories take decades and it can be questioned if such indirect approaches will really lead to those techniques and processes that are mostly needed in Cuban agriculture.

The willing adaption of the transgenic paradigm has also motivated the research on Bt. Cuban researchers have characterized indigenous Bt varieties, which have long been used successfully and environmentally sustainably in Cuban agriculture. In future, transgenic crops might substitute conventional applications. The fact that such crops would deviate from what is generally perceived as organic agricultural practice by the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) and others, does not seem to bother Cuban policy makers. In their view, considerations about such production standards for special markets come only second to national food security.

While it remains to be seen whether transgenic crops can fulfil the raised expectations, many applications of agrobiotechnology are less speculative. Cuba has a sound scientific basis for the development of organic fertilizers and pesticides, seeds, molecular techniques for plant breeding and disease detection.

Yet the scientific basis does not rest on firm economic ground. No plant breeding, either conventional or by molecular measures, can generate yield increases that are able to compensate for world market prices plummeting by 50 per cent in a few years. Furthermore, Cuba’s society is characterized by scarcity of goods for production and individual consumption, which for many is an incentive to earn foreign currency, for instance by tourism-related activities, rather than to increase food production. While biotechnology cannot be blamed for such problems, it will not be able to offer a solution either.
Volker Lehmann
Editor Biotechnology and Development Monitor

Sources
Arencibia Rodriguez, A.D. and Oramas Frenes, P. (1999), "Estado actual y perspectivas de la comercialización de plantas transgénicas". Biotecnología Aplicada, Vol. 16, Número especial, pp. E7-E11.

Rosset, P. and Benjamin, M. (1994), The Greening of the Revolution. Melbourne, Australia: Ocean Press.

Cuba Trade and Economic Council (1999), Economic Eye on Cuba, 11-17 January. http://www.cubatrade.org/eyeonz24.html

Personal communications with A.D. Arencibia and C. Borroto (CIGB), M.C. Pérez and S. Díaz (ACYT), P. Ponce (IBP), J. Rodríguez (CNSB) and R. Faloh (GECYT).