Farming Woes in Cuba

[El Presidente]

 

Reforms help Cuban farmers, but many still struggle

A package of 63 reforms approved last year was meant to make it easier and more profitable for Cuban producers to get food to consumers

ByANDREA RODRÍGUEZ Associated Press

August 26, 2022, 12:38 AM

HAVANA -- First, it was impossible to find fuel or seeds to plant. Later his name wasn't on a list of farmers eligible to rent tractors from the state. Now Lázaro Sánchez fears the current tropical rainy season will hinder his ability to work the land.

While Sánchez worries about trying to grow crops at his farm on the outskirts of Havana, Cubans in the cities are struggling with shortages of food and soaring prices.

To address such problems, Cuba's socialist government last year approved a package of 63 reforms meant to make it easier and more profitable for producers to get food to consumers — measures such as allowing farmers greater freedom to choose their crops and letting them sell more freely, at higher prices.

They are the latest in a series of highly touted changes adopted over the past 30 years since the collapse of the Soviet Bloc stripped Cuba of its most important sources of aid and trade. Officials have eroded the dominance of state farms and encouraged more semi-independent cooperatives. They have given farmers greater land use rights and loosened restrictions on sales..

But none of those efforts has yet been able to solve the island's chronic agricultural woes.

 

CONTINUED

[NSXCIGAR]

Still, authorities defend the reforms, saying that without them, things would have been even worse.

And not even a thank you from the ungrateful people. 

[KCCubano]

Yep. The 63 reforms saved the cuban people from no power 14 hours a day to only 13. Im sure all current government officials will be re-elected. 

[NSXCIGAR]

10 hours ago, KCCubano said:

Yep. The 63 reforms saved the cuban people from no power 14 hours a day to only 13. Im sure all current government officials will be re-elected. 

If only they had implemented reform #64. That would have fixed it. 

[Fugu]

“The island spends about $2 billion a year of its scarce foreign currency importing foods — though authorities say about $800 million of that could be produced at home under the right conditions.”

wrong: all of that could be produced at home under the right conditions.

It’s their mindset that is flawed already, that is the core problem.