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Cuba Shows Significant Progress in Hunger Reduction

produccion agrícolaDespite Washington”s economic blockade of Cuba, this country is currently among the 16 nations that have succeeded in reducing hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean a region with significant progress in fighting that scourge.

Among those efforts, the island reached in advance the goal established in the First World Summit on Food, held in 1996, of reducing in half the number of malnourished people before 2015.

Those results were acknowledged by the Director for Latin America and the Caribbean of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Josefina Stubbs, who also highlighted the work by Brazil, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela and some islands in the Caribbean as Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

Director of Science and Technology of the Cuban Agriculture Ministry Marisela Diaz highlighted that those results were due to the actions to increase the national food production and also to the imports of great volumes of food for an amount of money that exceeds $2 billion USD.

She also stressed the challenge that represents in the struggle against hunger the country’s fight against external factors as the climate change and having an aged population that is mostly urban, something that generates shortage of labor force fro agricultural work.

The Cuban official highlighted the investment of millions that are currently executed and will be in progress until 2020 in the agricultural sector, which include 21 programs in important items as rice, beans and corn, which are basic products regarding import replacements.

(Prensa Latina)

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