Inlemalional Diffusion of Tecluioio^y: A Case Study of Suf^arcane Varieties 49 



Cuba is the major exception to the general pattern of growers' 

 investment in sugarcane research. Of the two commercial 

 varieties originating there (table 3.2), one was developed by an 

 unknown private breeder, and the other is the product of an ex- 

 periment station that operated for only a short time during the 

 1930s. With the exception of stage 2 research by private growers 

 and a small amount by experiment stations, no sustained research 

 effort has been supported. Cuba has experienced steadily declin- 

 ing yields for the past forty years, in sharp contrast to the substan- 

 tial yield increases of virtually every other producing country. In 

 the 1920s the Cuban sugar industry was widely regarded as one of 

 the most advanced in the world, both in terms of cane-producing 

 and processing technology. The provision of a sheltered market 

 for Cuban sugar by the United States and the combination of sub- 

 stantial ownership and control of sugar lands and processing 

 plants by US interests until 1961, may offer the bases for an ex- 

 planation for Cuba's failure to invest in technological generation 

 and variety development in this crop. 



The support of the US interests in Cuba would have been re- 

 quired for the imposition of a tax to support research. In contrast 

 to a number of the colonialist situations, US interests were com- 

 plicated by the fact that many companies owned land and oper- 

 ated factories in Louisiana, Florida, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the 

 Philippines, as well as in Cuba. From the point of view of the in- 

 terests of some of these multinational firms, rapid technological 

 change in Cuba would have created a number of problems in the 

 1930s and 1940s. These interests were acutely aware of the neces- 

 sity for protecting domestic sugar interests from international 

 surpluses of sugar. They were directly involved in attempts to ar- 

 range sugar agreements to limit production, and did not see much 

 merit in taxing themselves to pursue an aggressive research 

 program in Cuba. In addition, they may have been convinced that 

 the experiment stations in Louisiana and Canal Point, Florida, 

 were well suited to discovering new varieties that could be easily 

 transferred to Cuba. This transfer, however, did not occur- 

 basically for climatological reasons. Cuban production still con- 

 tinues to be based on the stage 2 and 3 varieties from Java and 

 India. 



