Propoganda Puff Piece

[El Presidente]

 

This one is straight out of Starship Troopers 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Young people on the side of the highway

Published onFebruary 25, 2024•16:17by Lourdes Rey , Yuleiky Obregón Macías and Perla González

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With their bare chests they cleared the areas that a little over a year ago were covered with marabou; They turned them into productive lands where crops, breeding, and crops emerge. Young people make their life plans on the edge of the National Highway, in the last 20 kilometers of the municipality of Placetas, in Villa Clara.

 

Yaniel Negrín, the first of the Young Guerrillas. Photo: Agustín Borrego Torres

Today, their faces transcend amazement and bewilderment at the unknown; They are the same and they are different: stronger, more complete, full, they trust in the capabilities of man; His hands have traces of hard work and his look is clear, confident.

And there is much more. In the area, on both sides of the highway, the image is also different: fertile, clean, productive. You can see the herds in green pastures, the well-organized dairy farms; the fine plains where the tobacco that forms wrappers for cigars grows, covered; the banana plantations, many crops; and the homes, new and comfortable, with wells and some even with solar panels.

 

Flowers are born among thorns

As this idea spread, the National Highway Development Project gained strength, exactly between kilometers 298 and 318, in about 500 hectares of the 3,000 declared idle in Placetas. So far, 77 (six women) Young Guerrillas have joined, who are linked to the Benito Juárez Agricultural Company, and where the bureaucratic transformation of the delivery of land, granting of bank loans, assignment of low-income housing modules is essential. cost; the construction of wells, microdams and the solution to electricity with the use of solar panels, apart from other procedures.

However — few know it — the initiative arose further away, almost at the end of the highway and has been going on for eight years. In Cabaiguán, municipality of Sancti Spíritus, an agricultural emporium was born, led by a dozen young people, who pay for the mastery of consecrated farmers.

In addition to strengthening their position in the tobacco industry, during 2023 they delivered more than 100 thousand tons of food to the State. This productive impact, evident in the stability of some products in the province's markets, is the result of the implementation of the project in the Sancti Spiritus region.

“We started it with three producers: Félix Álvarez, Eliécer Pérez and me,” explained Yoandy Rodríguez, leader of the new batch. “At the proposal of the Delegation of Agriculture, we added farmers with the capacity to respond to the food that the population of the territory needs.

“It has been satisfactory, impressive. The banana is kept in Sancti Spíritus the entire year and sent to other provinces. We are in a moment where where food, seriousness and responsibility are, the little resource there is must be put,” said the man who is also Habano Man of the 2023 Festival.

At kilometer 329 of the National Highway is the farm of thirty-something Nelson González. “I came to the Project because with few resources I was doing a lot. After abandoning a university degree, I decided to go into the countryside about seven years ago.

“I started in various crops and then I got into tobacco. With perseverance, and the advice of Yoandy, in the previous campaign I achieved a yield of 72% of the export layer, in addition to 120 tons of various crops.

“Achieving high production requires a lot of sacrifice, the desire to do things well and the ability to look for alternatives, because there are never enough resources,” he said. Those with better results benefit from the efficient distribution of resources and varieties with higher yields and resistance to climate change.

 

The teacher of the new

“I have many students on the highway; principled, enterprising and stimulated boys. There are few farmers my age in agriculture; We must bet on young people, because they have advantages that I did not have: they are university students,” said Félix Álvarez, considered the founding father of the Project in Cabaiguán.

 

Science and technology with collaborative projects and priority for the few existing inputs. Photo: Agustín Borrego Torres

He is a true master of agrarian culture. On his earth there is no empty space. He alternates the crops and takes advantage of every inch of land, every drop of irrigation. The view is lost between meadows, coffee plantations and bean fields where the fight against thrips is arduous.

Félix is in love with his banana trees; The fields “shine” like his wife Olga's cauldrons. “I like all crops, but this banana stands out for its yield and resistance. I am a modern old man; “In agriculture we cannot stagnate.”

Banana varieties such as FHIA 04 and FHIA 01 gain areas from the 12 producers included in the Project, a strategy intended by Agriculture to support harvesting and marketing throughout the year.

 

Attract young people to the countryside

The National Highway Development Project advances silently, without impositions, with the support of the Ministry of Agriculture, the State and other organizations, without whose unity the ambitious challenges that emerge with it would be incomplete.

“It has the fundamental purpose of attracting people to work in the field; If they are young, the better because they respond well to training and have the will to undertake difficult tasks,” said engineer Ydael Pérez Brito, Minister of Agriculture, in an informal conversation with one of these reporters.

“The idea can be extended, without problems, to other territories, always with the seriousness, responsibility and agile responses that have been demonstrated in these two provinces,” Ydael asserted.

The success of finding young people willing to build their life project in the countryside is the most fertile contribution of everything Cuba does to rescue rurality, and food sovereignty and nutritional education, because it means bringing food closer to people. the table at affordable prices.

The lights of plans with young people linked to the countryside do not illuminate only on the sides of the highway, inland there are many who have completed their Military Service, have joined different agricultural tasks, and have the attention of state organizations and entities, initiatives that It is urgent to extend it for the recovery of agriculture.

Yusney Puentes Pérez, director of the Benito Juárez Agricultural Company, of Placetas, told Workers about the audacity of some vital processes for the advancement of the Project: “We delivered land so that the young people could start working and then we organized the usufruct files; We manage the credits with Bandec (Bank of Development and Commerce), we locate the homes on the farms (eight completed) that are built in record time, wells are dug and solar panels are installed in six, where access to the electrical grid is more difficult. national".

Another manager, Héctor Hernández Junquera, technical productive director of the company, meant that the lands of cost center units that were not exploited efficiently were handed over in usufruct, the existing means and facilities were leased and the results in livestock farming are already visible. .

Both administrative leaders pointed out that the farms are not given differentiated resources, but the little that the company receives has been based on the project given its scope and perspectives. With the same strategy, the program for the second stage is prepared and about to begin, which covers the other 20 kilometers of the highway in Placetas, which extend from the Báez bridge to Santa Clara, Héctor reported.

 

Soul and heart on earth

The landscape acquires the diversity of crops, pastures, livestock, windmills, homes, ... all of which gives life to the environment, which is repopulated with young people who, for one reason or another, have their future in the countryside. , and by other older people who accompany or are employed on the farms.

Photo: Agustín Borrego Torres

When Yaniel Negrín Alberto requested land, this movement was not organized. Although there were some producers, the streamlining of the procedures came just when the highway project was implemented, which, it is worth clarifying, does not remain on the edge of the asphalt, it extends inland.

The young agronomy student, only 24 years old, did not know the exact place, but he saw that the land was good and idle and decided on 26 hectares to build the El Renacer farm. He made the tobacco plantation, the house and cleared marabou to expand with bananas, cassava and short-cycle crops, a productively and economically favorable strategy, which provided him with work force.

He requested credits from the Bank: 120 thousand coupons for the bulldozing and 300 thousand for the banana plantations that he is already amortizing. “The first payments are the most difficult, because they include investments, but I am already entering a circular economy and I am reducing the debt with the sales of tobacco and crops. The future is here, producing, which is what is needed, it is the call to the farmers.

Somewhat to the east, the view is lost in the grasslands. Ulises Benavidez Quintanilla, veterinarian and inseminator, looks at the Renovación farm (they renovated the one that existed) and adds the land of his father and the usufruct of him and his wife.

A collective farm (10 caballerías) that they dedicate to the development of heifers: “We buy them in the area, they improve and when they are between three and six months gestation we sell them to the company or to other producers,” commented the dedicated rancher.

From the height of the dairy you can see almost the entire ranch: 220 animals ruminate in the pastures, of which 20 cows are milking.

The change is evident in just one year and six months, although Héctor, the company's deputy director, clarifies that livestock farming is not done in two years, and solutions are needed to stabilize what has been achieved.

“The usufructs are not inherited and the current ranchers do not see the possibility of working in the future, they are not left for their children or grandchildren. When a producer retires or dies, the lands are handed over again, that is, to others and that is a failure,” he said.

In addition to clearing weeds, Benavidez and his team have worked on improving pastures, building two dams to store water, housing, and windmills; They sold 102 heifers in the first year and this year they aim to reach 150. His results and goals are commendable, however, he does not find enough hands for the diversity of tasks.

Reaching almost kilometer 318, on both sides of the highway, two women defend their projects in different ways, with the same goal: economic stability and food production.

Mayara Ramos Moreno, a professor of History and Marxism, who could not make ends meet (either) by working in a restaurant, and insisted for almost three years to obtain usufruct land. The battle became difficult for her, however she did not give up, then the development project arose and they quickly assigned the land (and others to her husband); In three months she built the house (you can see it in the distance on the hill), the well and installed the panels.

 

Mayara, professor of History and Marxism, doing livestock. Photo: Agustín Borrego Torres

At this time, the La Carmen farm is undergoing a transformation by reducing the planting of grains and increasing the planting of cassava, banana, other crops and cattle, which compensate for the investment and allow loans to be paid off in a shorter period of time.

 

La Carmen, a comprehensive life project. Photo: Agustín Borrego Torres

Meanwhile, computer scientist Daniela Monteagudo Granado has her properties on the consolidated El Níspero family farm - a plant stands tall in the place - where she is committed to science and technology from her nascent cultivation houses and the use of machinery that provides them with ALASS project, for agri-food systems in six municipalities in the center of the country.

 

Daniela, among those empowered on the highway. Photo: Agustín Borrego Torres

The range of these four stories does not reflect the magnitude of a project that can, without parallel, contribute to accelerate its introduction in other provinces, to fill orphaned areas with colors, shadows and lives, which with “good sponsors” and a lot of determination will quench the thirst. for food.

William Licourt, general secretary of the National Union of Agricultural, Forestry and Tobacco Workers, is sure of this, and he highlights the contribution to the agrarian culture promoted by these members, who at the same time drink the sap of renowned farmers, a combination to bring men to the field.

At the same time, Marleni Hernández, head of the Staff Department in the Delegation of Agriculture, of Villa Clara, exalts the change achieved in less than two years: “In addition to productive and economic development, there is empowerment of women and young people: With the commercialization of productions they acquire autonomy, independence to develop their own well-being and that of their families and illuminate that of many more who can join the field, the field with dignity.”

 

Contributions in figures

All harvested products (including livestock and tobacco) are marketed through state entities or fairs.

The National Highway Development Project, in Placetas, Villa Clara, contributes around 15% of the commercialization of agricultural products of the Benito Juárez Agricultural Company and to the fairs organized by that entity.

Average monthly income of 25 thousand pesos is estimated between producers and workers linked to this Project, reported Héctor Hernández Junquera, deputy technical productive director of the Agricultural Department.

The young leading producers who began the experience in the municipality of Cabaiguán, in Sancti Spíritus, eight years into the development of the initiative, contributed 38% to the state marketing of that municipality during the year 2023.

The income could not be calculated, since some producers contribute to the State and others to the cooperatives, reported Roberto Reina, subdelegate of Agriculture in the province of Sancti Spiritus. Keeping these accounts becomes an essential challenge.