Pollution-Free Agriculture? The Benefits and Costs of Organic Agriculture:  Evidence from Cuba
Current projections suggest that developing-country agricultural output will double in the next several decades, as population continues to grow and incomes increase.  Evidence of serious health and environmental damage from pesticides and fertilizers in the past three decades indicates that much less chemical-intensive farming techniques will be needed in the future. Three major responses to the hazards of chemical inputs in agriculture have emerged in recent years: integrated pest management (IPM); biotechnology to develop “transgenic” crops; and organic farming. 

Organic farming eliminates the health damage from pesticide exposure, and it also has strong appeal from an environmental perspective because it uses neither chemical pollutants nor transgenic crops.  Its labor-intensity and viability at a modest scale also add to its attraction in low-wage developing countries where smallholder agriculture is the dominant mode of production. However, organic farming, while a potentially-attractive alternative, raises a host of research issues.  Comparative production functions, cost functions, learning curves, environmental impacts, and public overhead costs (agricultural extension, organic certification) of organic and “mainstream” agriculture in developing countries must be analyzed before policymakers are likely to promote widespread adoption of organic methods.

Until now, the existing literature has cited scattered experiments with organic production in developing countries; data scarcity has impeded empirical work on the economics and environmental benefits of organic farming in developing countries.