Urban agriculture is an emerging trend in many cities of the world. In Cuba, this practice has been diffused since the beginning of the 90s, i.e. during the Periodo Especial which saw the end of the relations with the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and the harshering of the United States embargo. To meet the emergency needs some citizens began to cultivate the abandoned areas in their neighborhood, to convert their courtyard into vegetable gardens and breed animals. The government initiated a process of institutionalization and spread of the phenomenon on large-scale transforming the conventional model of agriculture in a sustainable one. The urban gardens (known here as organoponicos, the name of a particular technique of cultivation) are managed by citizens or state cooperatives providing jobs and products sold within the same.
