The importance of speeding up implementation of current and future programs was a recurring theme in comments made by José Ramón Machado Ventura, second secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba and a Council of Ministers vice president, during his tour of agricultural sites in the municipalities of Cueto, Mayarí and Banes, in the eastern province of Holguín.
He was accompanied by Luis Torres Iríbar, member of the Central Committee and provincial Party leader, as well as Gustavo Rodríguez Rollero, minister of Agriculture.
In Cueto, Machado Ventura stopped to inspect progress being made on the Birán-Báguano-Banes stretch of the East-West water diversion project and conversed with workers as well as users, including farmers and the state sugar company Azcuba.
Machado Ventura and his companions were updated on a livestock recovery program underway in El Cupey, at a ranch with 200 heifers of the Cuban White Zebu breed.
The group additionally visited the Tomás Machado Credit and Services Cooperative (CCS) of small farmers cultivating 107 hectares of rice, in Cosme–Herrera area.
Other sites toured in this municipality included the Chavaleta irrigation system, a rice mill near Guaro, and a plant processing nim tree seeds to produce natural pesticides.
The next stop was in Banes, the Mejías agricultural production pole with 442 hectares under cultivation, where an irrigation system will be installed next year to allow for year round harvests.
In Los Angeles, Machado Ventura held an encouraging conversation with members of the leadership board at the Regino Guerrero Cooperative, which has signed a contract with the state distributor for 350 tons of beans next year. This group of small farmers has become a national reference in the cultivation of this essential crop, and has attracted attention with their soil management practices.
(Granma)