Over the course of an extensive day of work, combing practically all the principal agricultural poles of the province, Machado Ventura verified, in situ, that the current priority of the population is just that: working without rest to alleviate the situation caused by the intense rains and the delays in planting these generated.

Félix Duartes Ortega, member of Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee and first secretary in the province, who accompanied the Second Secretary throughout the day, informed him that the planting of 900 hectares in Horquita was delayed, and another 300 in Juraguá, both located in the municipality of Abreus.

Considerable damage to plantain fields was recorded in Venero, in Aguada de Pasajeros; and some 400,000 seedlings were lost in Cumanayagua, Duartes explained.

We have the machinery, the fuel, seeds, and the workforce committed to the upcoming season, reported Rolando Pérez Ramos, director of this agricultural pole.

Prioritized in Horquita are the more than 350 hectares of beans needed to feed the population, Duartes noted.

A similar spirit of work was appreciated by Machado Ventura in the Juraguá Pole, speaking with fruit grower Edey Suárez Martínez, affiliated with the Arimado Citrus Enterprise. He toured fields here, damaged tobacco seedling beds (that are being re-sown with the Criollo 2010 variety) and repaired greenhouses, where 90 % of the production is destined for export to generate hard currency for the country.

(Taken from Granma)

He recalled that, immediately following the storm, a meeting of the National Defense Council’s economic-social team took place, headed by President of the Republic Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, during which the area of greatest concern, the state of the country’s reservoirs were evaluated and, based on the experience of Cubans in facing flooding associated with such these weather events, measures to minimize the damage were adopted.

After the storm passed by, he pointed out, the country’s highest leadership visited the most affected provinces, confirming the extent of damage and the people’s participation in recovery efforts.

He noted that some 89,000 people were evacuated, around 73,000 in the homes of relatives and friends, once again demonstrating the solidarity of Cubans, and another 16,000 in evacuation centers.

During his report, he acknowledged the tense situation of the economy, hence the importance of working efficiently to recover in the shortest time possible.

Recovery, he stressed, does not happen overnight; but the country has the basic resources essential to the task of restoring key sectors, including agriculture and water distribution-flood control infrastructure, despite the limitations.

(Taken from Granma)

As part of the Cuban government’s proactive insistence on increasing links between scientific work and the rest of the country’s productive sectors, to make concrete contributions to the national economy, the government visit led by President of the Republic Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez to Santiago de Cuba included in a discussion with directors, researchers, graduates and students at the Universidad de Oriente.

The President learned how the institution of higher learning is playing a leading role in the province’s strategy to increase the food supply, through the application of findings from some thirty scientific studies, involving more than 3,330 students and faculty members.

Referring to new organizational efforts to evaluate the impact of research and coordinate scientific and technological development programs, he explained that there remain many gaps, but contributions from researchers have already begun to flow toward concrete applications, leading to the creation of advisory technical councils in all central state administration bodies, with the participation of experts from the Cuban Academy of Sciences and university researchers.

“All this,” he emphasized, “with an inter-sectorial approach, with the participation of all areas of knowledge, including the fundamental role of the social sciences, has been put to the test during the COVID-19 battle, in which, as part of the strategy charted, we summoned experts from scientific institutions.

(Taken from Granma)

“This promoted more than 700 research projects across the country, new clinical trials, improvement of protocols for patient treatment, and regular follow-up meetings every week with these scientists and experts, an experience now being transferred to other areas, including encounters with the scientific community involved in food production.”

Presently, Cuba imports some 800,000 tons of corn and spends 550 million dollars on animal feed, an unsustainable dependency which obliges us to focus on banishing the import mentality.

For these reasons, the Second Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee, José Ramón Machado Ventura, joined by Central Committee Secretariat member José Ramón Monteagudo Ruiz and Minister of Agriculture Gustavo Rodríguez Rollero, met with a reduced number of provincial and municipal leaders to review on progress made on implementing food production strategies that emerged from regional meetings held at the end of March in Holguín, Sancti Spíritus and Havana.

Regarding the province of Artemisa Machado Ventura reiterated the importance of preparing all arable land and using certified seeds. This province has several commitments, including the production of charcoal, honey and tobacco, which may not be marketable now given the international situation, but when demand reappears, income will be ensured, he noted.

Artemisa is planting corn, for use as animal feed and to boost milk production, which is currently not meeting projections.

In Mayabeque, Machado Ventura and Vice President Valdés Mesa stressed that the government has prioritized national solutions as central to the economy, and that agricultural production is key in all this work; insisting on the importance of exploiting to the maximum all material and financial resources available to the sector, including fuel, fertilizers and foreign exchange allocated.

He reiterated that among established priorities for cultivation are rice, beans, corn and plantain, as well as production of eggs and pork, while calling for taking advantage of the spring season to plant short-cycle crops, an effort in which urban, suburban and family agriculture also play an important role.

Campesinos in Matanzas are sowing more than 24,000 hectares this spring as a concrete response to present needs – mainly short-cycle crops. Advantage is being taken of cleared land, now available with the potato harvest completed, an important contribution to saving fuel.

Machado Ventura emphasized that outdated habits must be overcome, especially the tendency to import needed supplies and sign contracts for only a portion of expected production.

Carlos Luis Naranjo Suárez, the Agriculture Ministry’s provincial representative, in Matanzas stressed the importance of increasing corn production, as well as improving yields for both beans and rice, as well as plantain and cassava.

Party Secretariat member José Ramón Monteagudo Ruiz praised work done in Cienfuegos to recover underutilized productive poles and incorporate new ones, while urging that more land be granted in usufruct. He stated that this process must be speeded up and the current strategy reviewed.

Some 5,000 new hectares under irrigation have been incorporated to ensure the food supply, with productive areas reactivated and others added. The Paso Bonito Cruces irrigation canal is now in full use; the Tablón factory has been revitalized to guarantee the supply of animal feed; and several agricultural projects are underway; while coffee planting in lowlands and charcoal production are advancing.
Cuban agriculture must become the prime source of food for the population. Photo: Miguel Febles Hernández

In Villa Clara, Machado Ventura called for intensifying the preparation of acreage and prioritizing the planting of cassava, boniato and other crops to confront the pandemic, and create conditions to substitute imports.

He addressed the need to increase yields, which depends on the quality of seeds used and regular attention to plantings, with available supplies and equipment, which is no small feat, he noted.

“Agricultural development is a secure base because with it we can replace, if not 100 percent of food imports, at least a significant portion,” José Ramón Machado Ventura stated in Sancti Spíritus.

The most challenging situation here is that faced by the Sur del Jíbaro Agro-industrial Enterprise, which was obliged to reduce rice planting to 700 hectares as a result of the Zaza reservoir’s low water level, but is looking to take advantage of ground water from existing wells on its property, while continuing land preparation and diversifying livestock production, as well as other crops.

In Ciego de Ávila, Machado Ventura insisted that the contracting process must be conducted correctly, going directly to the productive base, visiting farmers and insisting that every contribution is needed given the situation the country is facing.

The recently concluded potato harvest provided more than 19,500 tons to the population’s diet, in a campaign with limited availability of resources, fundamentally of phytosanitary products, which required a search for alternatives. Nonetheless, the province was able to send potatoes to Guantánamo, Granma, Las Tunas, Camagüey and Havana.

In Camagüey, where only 7.5% of the arable area is irrigated, campesinos are obliged to prepare as much land as possible to take advantage of spring rains.

Dairy farmers here are under pressure since they are behind in scheduled deliveries to the industry, a deficit they hope to recover during the “peak” months of the current campaign.

“The country is making an unimaginable effort to save lives in this pandemic, and no resources are being spared. And I believe agriculture can make a significant contribution, but we must solve the many problems that have held us back,” Machado Ventura stated referring to Las Tunas.

Here, he discussed the province’s plans for the spring campaign, with more than 17,400 hectares being planted. He also took interest in the planting of corn, which is now planned for 3,900 hectares, a figure that participants in the meeting are looking to increase.

Machado Ventura insisted in Holguín that the mobilization of personnel to the fields must be economically efficient, ensuring that the necessary forces participate, those capable of giving crops the attention they need.

It was reported that, to launch the spring campaign, 10,177 hectares have been sown thus far, mainly grains and root vegetables.

The province was asked to increase rice production. Any contribution is important for the country, Minister of Agriculture Gustavo Rodriguez Rollero noted.

“We must achieve truly diversified production, promote the mentality of substituting imports and promoting exports in all cooperatives and basic production units, whether they focus on sugarcane, crops or livestock,” Machado Ventura stated regarding the province of Granma.

Also analyzed during the meeting here were rice and tobacco programs, as well as livestock indicators, areas in which the province makes an important contribution to state wholesalers.

Participants in this meeting agreed that exploiting all untapped potential and taking advantage of the effective experiences to reduce imports and promote exports is the best response farmers can offer to the U.S. blockade and the new coronavirus.

(Source: Granma)

A financial audit of sector entities resulted in the decision to liquidate or merge with more successful facilities those which have failed to make a profit for three or more years. These measures will also be applied to other successful institutions with the aim of simplifying organization structures and concentrating human and material recourses.

The largest number of entities to undergo this process (73% of the total) are in the agriculture sector, hence only 360 of the 406 institutions affiliated with the Ministry of Agriculture (Minag) will remain.

“The agriculture industry is striving to improve; this process must encompass the greatest percentage of solutions to today’s problems,” stated Alexis Rodríguez Pérez, Minag director of Accounting and Prices. He explained that the process also entails the reorganization of the state system, including research centers and the ministry itself, as well as the creation of municipal and provincial delegations and groups representing territorial entities alongside agricultural production centers which are not part of an enterprise group or liquidated entity.

PRODUCTION UNITS REORGANIZED

”These improvements will strengthen the enterprise system, through the reorganization of production units across all areas, given that today for example, we have three entities with a certain amount of available resources, whose production levels are not consistent with the organizational structure.

”It is not possible to justify the existence of an entity with annual sales of one million pesos, when there are cooperatives able to make 50 million in the same period. We need to increase food production by consolidating workers, land, technology, livestock, working capital and transport,” noted the official.

According to Rodríguez, another incentive to support national agricultural production is the introduction of new equipment and investment, as well as training efforts carried out across all entities, contributing to employees’ professional development and their ability to provide higher quality services.

The improvement process also takes in to account factors associated with the workforce, given the importance of manual laborers in raising production levels.

“We need all basic production workers to continue carrying out their tasks, and collectives to be strengthened, primarily with the surplus technical personnel from research centers and enterprise management offices,” he added.

Minag’s Director of Accounting and Prices noted that the new policy requires that rigorous productivity studies be carried out: “When layoffs are approved, the workers must be consulted, they must be informed of the steps that will be taken and every employee that is not re-hired must be offered the stipulated alternative employment options.”

He also reported that the restructuring process includes a fiscal procedure to clear entities’ outstanding debts, similar to the one being applied to Basic Unit of Cooperative Production (UBPC) and Agriculture and Livestock Production Cooperatives (CPA), which have seen their debts renegotiated over a 25 year term.

“This is very different from how it used to be done, when the remaining entities would assume the debts of those which had been dissolved,” he explained.

Rodríguez reported that the end of 2015 will see some 90 organizations involved in various stages of the improvement process being undertaken by Minag, for a total of 319 entities, and efforts are scheduled to continue through March 2016. According to the ministry official the enterprise system will see layoffs of 1,126 employees, while there will be 4,777 across the state system.

INITIAL RESULTS

Given the impact of initial reforms to the enterprise system, today the Ministry of Agriculture’s economic situation is better than it was in 2010, when over half of affiliated entities incurred losses of almost 1.2 billion pesos, due to ineffective management and low yields.

The situation began to change three years later, when only 82 unprofitable entities remained and total losses were down to 209,000,000 pesos. The following year saw a dozen institutions leave this negative trend, with only 17% of all entities with losses remaining and a significant reduction in outstanding debts.

At the end of the first half of this year, the situation is even more encouraging: only 46 entities reported losses, while the agriculture sector saw net earnings of 411,832,000 pesos. These results represent the revival of Cuban agriculture.

(Granma)

Since the end of the 1950s, these lands have been worked by different generations of the same family, establishing farming as a deeply rooted tradition among its members.

Ubaldo Córdova Leal runs the farm – affiliated with the Raúl Cepero Bonilla Cooperative – with the help of his sons: Maykel and Ubaldo Córdova Cid, who having previously helped on the farm, decided to take it on as a full time occupation (once they had completed their high school studies) more than 10 years ago.

The 14.24 hectare farm is home to various crops and fruits, in addition to around 45 pigs, providing the provincial Pork Enterprise with 185 pounds of meat; while the family is planning to begin rabbit rearing in the coming months.

“So far this year we have delivered 100 tones of sweet potato, eight of garlic, one of avocado, two of pork with a further two to come, as well as 20 of taro. “We are preparing to harvest garlic and tomatoes at the end of September.

We have also planted bitter oranges and mamey, which we intermix with several exotic fruits such as cashew apples, canistels, cherrys, peaches, longan fruit, sugar apples, soursops and guavas, notes Córdova Leal.

The farm has received numerous recognitions for its work, including distinctions for the 40 and 45th Anniversary of the Agrarian Reform and others awarded by the cooperative.

We are in the process of turning it into an agro-ecological farm. For this we need to carry out integrated efforts, have sufficient capital to finance production, as well as intermix crops to create natural barriers. We also need a staple supply of biological resources and organic materials for decomposition, in addition to other practices we must implement, comment his sons.

This way we will be able to reduce the use of chemical products as well as expenses. We plan to make a biodigester, in order for which we need financing, they add.

Maykel and Ubaldo who recently became agricultural engineers highlight that their studies have enabled them to put theory into practice, exploit 100% of yields of all varieties of crops, use better quality seeds, ensure the soil is disease fre,e and thus reduce the potential risk of the spread of infection to other crops.

What is more, we will be able to share our knowledge with other producers, they note. The farm has become the ideal place to hold workshops, with the participation of campesinos from the cooperative and students from the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP) former National School.

Their efforts have produced important results which have been highlighted in forum events. Given that studying always bears fruit, at the end of August they will begin their Masters degree studies in Agro-ecology, providing them with more tools to achieve their ultimate goal. Thus this family is clearing new paths toward the development of agro-ecological practices.