A UBPC ('Unidad Básica de Producción Cooperativa'), or Basic Unit of Cooperative Production, are a type of agricultural cooperative that exists in Cuba.
History of the UBPCs
Cuban agriculture consists of state and private farms, both of which are managed by either the Ministry of Agriculture which manages livestock and various crops or the Ministry of Sugar which manages sugarcane (Deere). The agricultural sector now includes cooperatives: UBPCs, CPAs, CCSs, private, and state (Harnecker).
The layout for cooperative agriculture was created after the 1959 Revolution with the Agrarian Reform Act which transferred 70% of farmland from vast colonial farms (Burchardt) to the state (Harnecker). The state farms were created with a Fordist model of immediate mass production via use of chemicals, massive productive units, and specialized units (Burchardt).
In 1960, the bank which provided loans to farmers shut down, and so the Credit and Service Cooperatives (Cooperativas de Créditos y Servicios, CCS) were created as a way for tobacco farmers to still receive necessary loans. CSS farmers still were individual owners of their land, and retained the liberty to exit the cooperative at any time and still own their land and their production. (Harnecker).
CSS consisted of farmers voluntarily joining each other to gain access to loans, new technology that would otherwise be too expensive to individually obtain, marketing benefits, among others. In 1961, National Association of Small Farmers (Asociación Nacional de Pequeños Agricultores, ANAP) was created to represent both individual and cooperative members. (Harnecker)
In 1975 a decision was made to switch to more advanced types of production, which created the Agricultural Production Cooperatives (Cooperativas de Producción Agropecuaria, CPAs). CPAs were private farmers who voluntarily donated their land to the cooperative. CPAs were different from CSS because the farmers received payment for selling their resources to the cooperative, after which becoming collective workers and owners.
In 1993 the Basic Units of Cooperative Production (Unidades Básicas de Producción Cooperativa, UBPCs) were created by the Political Bureau of the Cuban Communist Party (Harnecker) from 735 state-owned sugar-cane farms and 835 other agricultural farms (Burchardt) during the Special Period. CPAs and CSSs were more prepared than the state farms at producing under the scarce resources of the Special Period. In 1992, 85 percent of the CPAs were profitable whereas in 1990 only 27 percent of state farms were profitable, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture (MINAG) (Harnecker). The goal was to create a hybrid UBPC which had the goals to expand food production, create a bigger workforce, improve living standards by increase accessibility to social services and housing, and reduce agricultural subsidies. (Burchardt)
The workers at these state enterprises became collective workers overnight when they were given rent free land, limitless usufruct rights and production infrastructure with loans. The collective workers had free rein to democratically electing leaders of their UBPC, who would also present reports about their mandates to them. The UBPC principles are to address labor shortages by stimulating productivity, to raise income with a greater production, to implement modern teamwork strategies by involving all members into decision making processes and management. (Harnecker) The positive CPA model of more than 20 years proved to work, which greatly influenced the formation of UBPC.
The law authorizing the creation of UBPCs was passed on 20 September 1993. The law transformed many state farms into UBPCs. The law also granted indefinite usufruct to the workers of the UBPC.
The law was passed to link the workers to the land, establish material incentives for increased production by tying workers' earnings to the overall production of the UBPC, and increase managerial autonomy and participation in the management of the workplace.
The Cuban government hoped that these structural changes in the agricultural sector, coupled with other economic reforms, would alleviate the hardships experienced during the Special Period which followed the collapse of the Eastern Bloc and the COMECON.