Cuban President: “There’s plenty of unexploited potential in agriculture”

HAVANA, Cuba, Feb 20 (ACN) Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez stressed that the country’s agricultural system has much more potential to put more and rather cheap foods on people’s tables.

Díaz-Canel, who lashed out at existing travesties that need correction and have to do as much with the role of the officials as with community engagement, recalled Army General Raul Castro’s recent call to cadres at all levels to strive to transform the country’s current socioeconomic situation by being more dedicated and demanding and staying clear of naiveté and triumphalism.

He pointed out that food production remains a top priority in Cuban agriculture based on labor’s potential and the use of science and technology, but its outcome still falls way short of the country’s and people’s expectations, especially regarding the delivery of milk and beef production, the contracting mechanisms, and the leasing of land and livestock. Hence the importance, he remarked, that municipalities become self-sufficient and major food providers.

Strong statements also came from VP Salvador Valdés Mesa and deputy prime minister Jorge Luis Tapia Fonseca about the need to revise the structure of the Ministry of Agriculture, improve its production plans, and crack down on cattle theft and slaughter.

On his end, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz underscored the need to right some wrongs concerning both the implementation of the Food Sovereignty and Food and Nutritional Security Act, the results of which are yet to be evident, and the export and foreign investment contracts, the use of science and technology, and the provision of services to producers and enterprises in the countryside.