Havana, March 17 (ACN) Rice production is a priority in Cuba to guarantee the staple for the people, but in order to increase the local rice output the country needs to import and manufacture agricultural machinery.
At present, the island imports over two thirds of the total amount of rice needed to meet the national demand and such imports come from far-a-way regions, which makes it a costly operation.
The Cuban rice strategy aims at increasing local production to guarantee stable availability of the product and lower costs, but this requires huge amounts of water particularly in an island with low water potential and long-lasting drought.
According to expert Arcadio Rios, from the Institute for Agricultural Engineering Research, the country needs machinery, fertilizers, drying areas, milling machines and silos, all of which are increasingly expensive at the world market.
The Cuban Development Plan for the Agriculture Sector up to the year 2030 expects to expand rice cultivation fields and increase investment to modernize the agro-industrial system. Meanwhile the local Integral Rice Development Program, which counts on investment projects standing at some 889 million dollars, expects to import and manufacture a large number of equipment to be used along the rice production chain.
At present, the rice sector is importing new tractors of different potential, rice planting machines and harvesters, while local manufacturing includes fertilizer machinery, earth graders, trailers, water tanks, mobile workshops, among others.
The ongoing investment in agriculture is a priority not only to replace costly food imports but also to cushion the impact by the world economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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