Farmers Strive to Revamp Rice Complex
By Miguel Febles Hernández

"You see that paddy field, how fine it looks? Well, until recently the whole area was covered with bushes, like those you see on the far side there. In a relatively short period of time, the new cooperative has produced two crops, with very good results." 

The old machines still stand up to the challenges  of efficient harvesting.

At 38, after 20 years devoted to the business of family rice growing, Miguel Arturo Duran Arregoitía heads the Ascunce Manuel Domenech Cooperative, the largest rice producer in the country, with 9,779 tons in 2009. 

The cooperative’s 217 members decided to team up and recover and plant more than 2,500 hectares of land south of Camaguey, which used to belong to the Ruta Invasora Agroindustrial Complex and had remained idle for years before they were passed over to the cooperative in usufruct. 

"Work never stops here—says Miguel Arturo—,this is a chain activity. Once we harvest these fields, we’ll start preparing the land again, and by mid-February and we will be planting anew." 

Encouraged by the good prices of rice, the fair treatment they get from the complex’s management and the close cooperation among producers, farmers at the Manuel Ascunce they do not hesitate in saying that in 2010 they intend to outdo their top 2009 performance. 

LET THE LAND SPEAK 

To get to these rice fields one must travel tens of kilometers of roads turned almost impassable by the steady traffic of agricultural equipment, in itself a sign of an awakening of the former giant state rice producer, now entrusted to cooperative farmers. 

Never neglecting the work of the two rice harvesters in the proximity, Victor Cabrera Cardenas shares, with this news writer, his experiences and expectations regarding a product that is a staple in Cubans’ diet. 

"These are flat, low fertility lands, which need nitrogen-based products. If you fail to apply those or do not do it in time, the yield suffers. Rice is a grateful crop: if you give it what it needs to grow, it gives you back the food you need." 

The rice-farming program in the hands of cooperatives in Camaguey province was the fastest growing nation-wide in 2009, totaling 23,359 tons of the grain for domestic consumption. The product’s world market price stands today at some US$ 600 a ton 

THE UPS AND DOWNS OF A COMPLEX 

Considered one of the more high-tech agricultural productions in Cuba, rice growing was hard hit by the crisis brought on by the demise of socialism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Then came the drought that affected Camagüey province for ten consecutive years, sending rice production to an all time low of 4,300 tons. 

But the sector took advantage recently of a Venezuela supported project aimed at modernizing the Candido Gonzalez and Tato Rodriguez Vedo rice mills. "This, combined with other credits obtained, allowed us to buy 10 harvesters, 12 tractors and four fertilizing machines," said complex director Idelino Álvarez Folgoso. 

But the challenges for Camaguey rice growers remain huge. 

"There has been a slight improvement—says Idelino—, but the truth is, lack of transportation continues to be a big problem, resulting in the harvesting repeatedly stopping because of 'bottlenecks' in the rice dryers and mills." 

"Another big problem is water: the local Jimaguayú dam only has 106 million cubic meters in storage, which is not enough for the rice program, so we will again be largely depending on the rains that the next spring may bring," lamented the director.

Taken from Granma Daily