ANAP Sessions Held in Matanzas, Ciego de Avila and Sancti Spiritus
BY VENTURA DE JESÚS, CRISTÓBAL ÁLAMO AND JUAN A. BORREGO

The need to work seriously and intelligently to fully exploit the land, and in that way guarantee sufficient food supply for the population without excessive expenses of transport or other resources was one of the issues underscored by Cuban Vice President Jose Ramon Machado Ventura during the sessions of the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP) of the provinces of Matanzas, Ciego de Avila and Sancti Spiritus, that took place this weekend.

Machado Ventura said that if we do not make it to maintain—with our own resources—a strong and efficient economy, we won’t be able to increase the production our population needs. He added that it is vital to improve the marketing so that the products arrive quickly onto the markets.

He also made reference to the fact that there are still some obstacles and bureaucratic decisions which stop the proper distribution and sale of root vegetables, grains and vegetables, as well as decisions regarding the prices; that is why modifying the mechanisms that allow the country achieve real economic sustainability is urgent.

Meanwhile, Machado Ventura called for planning animal’s feed without waiting for imported consumables, and said that the country invests more than 1.5 million dollars annually buying food, part of which can be substituted by national products if the areas of cultivation and the yields increase.

In that regard, in the central province of Sancti Spiritus, some representatives of emblematic cooperatives like Nueva Cuba, Cuba Nueva and Juan González presented their experiences in pig and cattle fattening with a diet composed mainly by local production components, an activity which has been really profitable for them.

The Cuban Minister of Agriculture, Ulises Rosales del Toro, and ANAP President Orlando Lugo Fonte attended the sessions and addressed key elements on the effective development of Cuban agriculture.

Lugo Fonte underscored the need for increasing the yield in each production to improve diversification, and perfecting even more the systems of marketing and contracting in the country.

In Ciego de Avila, Lugo Fonte spoke of the importance of the self-sufficiency of grains by the ANAP members and their families, which would entail substantial import saving.

Noel Gil, ANAP president in Ciego de Avila, reported that, in the year 2009, the local farmers contributed 60% of the root vegetables produced in the province, and 80% of milk, vegetables, tobacco and other products.

In Sacti Spiritus, Reinaldo Rodríguez Hidalgo, president of the Ramón Balboa CCS, noted that a better use of the land and the collective means the improvement of the economic apparatus of the farmers associations, the consistent introduction of science and technology and the guarantee of indispensable services for the producers, which are crucial elements to achieve advances in the agricultural sector.

Farmers’ contributions to the consolidation of the system of direct sale of milk in the grocery stores of the whole province—the cities of Trinidad and Sancti Spiritus are the only ones remaining—, the search for alternatives for rice production in extreme drought conditions, and the gradual recovery of coffee production, were also part of the agenda of the farmers session in Sancti Spiritus.

In the western province of Matanzas, one of the topics discussed was the low production of pork. The cooperative movement of the province hardly fulfilled 50% of its plan— slightly over 6,000 tons—, and now takes the challenge of joining all the cooperatives and the farmers in this field to make the necessary development possible.