HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) — President Raúl Castro has moved quickly since taking the reins of power from his ailing brother, Fidel, last year to boost food production by putting more land into the hands of profit-earning farmers.
Cuban farmers pick tomatoes on a farm in Guira de Melena, 80 miles south of Havana, on Wednesday. Government officials hope that, with more land into production, the nation would need to import less food. Just east of the capital, Jose Luis Silva grows cabbage, corn and plantains on a small plot, one that he would like to see expanded. “I’d work it, and I’d work it well,” he said. “It would solve their problem, and it would solve mine.” When he says “their problem,” he is referring to Cuba’s disastrous state-run agriculture industry. Cuba imports about 80 percent of the food it rations to the public. Additionally, state-run television reports that half of the country’s state-owned land is either unused or underused. A thorny bush called marabu fills many of the unused fields and has become a symbol for the failure of agriculture. Last year, Raúl Castro himself bitterly joked about how much of it he could see along the highway. Now, changes are under way.
(Source:CNN)