CLC-Conference-Proceeding-2018

espectively by the Ministerio de la Agricultura
[Ministry of Agriculture] (MINAG) and the
Ministerio de la Industria Azucarera [Ministry of
the Sugar Industry] (MINAZ), which was
transformed in 2011, assigning part of its
common purpose to the MINAG and then
changed its name to AZCUBA, which continued
to oversee the country’s sugar production.
According to the Oficina Nacional de
Estadísticas e Información [National Office of
Statistics and Information] (ONEI) cited by Diaz
(2005), this process radically changed land
distribution in Cuba: if in 1989, 82% of the total
surface area and 73% of the agricultural surface
area belonged to 385 state-owned companies, in
2000, different types of farming cooperatives
occupied 43% of the total surface area and
61.3% of the agricultural surface area. Of
those,the UBPCs occupy 28.7% of their total
surface area and 40.6% of the agricultural
surface (Diaz, 1998). Therefore, the land was
transferred over to new social players, among
those old agricultural laborers and other people
that were not associated with the agrarian sector.
The figures mentioned above eloquently
show the extraordinary importance of the
cooperative sector in Cuban farming production,
not only in reference to food production for
internal consumption but also with regard to
crops earmarked for agro-exportation.
In this regard, the researcher Nova states
that the creation of the three types of
cooperatives, CCSs, CPAs, and UBPCs,
illustrate an important expression of the
country’s agricultural policy, confirming the
cooperative movement as a fundamental basis
upon which the corporate agricultural economic
system is erected (Nova 2004).
In Cuba, the process of creating the first
cooperatives up until those introduced in 1993
was characterized by material support and
monitoring by state institutions, which
underlines the existing concern toward human
beings who work in these production units.
Cooperativas no Agropecuarias [Non-Farming
Cooperatives] (CNoA)
In Cuba, the economic and social model
sustained by the Economic and Social Policy
Guidelines of the Party and the Revolution
approved in April 2011 is currently in the
process of being modernized.
With the purpose of continuing to
modernize the Cuban socioeconomic model and
in compliance with the Guidelines approved at
the Sixth Cuban Communist Party Congress in
April 2011 and specifically the Economic and
Social Policy Guidelines of the Party and the
Revolution from the 25th to the 29th in
November 2012, it was decided that cooperatives
in non-farming activities be gradually
established, and that provisions of an
experimental nature would regulate this process.
At the beginning, the experience provided for the
creation of around 200 associations of this type
throughout the country, which would focus on
the transportation, gastronomic, and fishing
industries, along with personal and domestic
services, the recovery of raw materials, the
manufacture of materials, and construction
services.
The foregoing modernization pays
special attention to the cooperative movement,
both within the farming industry and in other
sectors of the Cuban economy.
The legal body regulating the
development of nonfarming cooperatives is
comprised of Decree Laws issued by the State
Council No. 305 at 306 of November 15th and
17th, 2012 respectively; Decree No. 309 of the
Council of Ministers, on November 28, 2012;