To increase in a sustained way the food production is the challenge that more than 40 thousand directors, technicians, specialists and producers of the province of Las Tunas have, in the middle of a tense situation due to the limitations of fuels, fertilizers and other inputs required for the activity.
Las Tunas, Cuba.- According to Luis Manuel Peralta Agüero, sub-delegate of the Ministry of Agriculture in the territory, the workers of the agricultural sector are not willing to give up and prioritize the search of new areas for the various crops, especially in places that were dedicated to cattle raising or sugar cane, without the results that sugar production needs.
"One example is the Fleitas production center, in Manatí, with sufficient water possibilities. There will be no irrigation systems; but, it will be done by gravity to attend the 225 hectares that are already planted. Of these, 200 are donkey bananas to be delivered to that municipality and to the provincial capital. There is a program designed to reach 500 hectares and promote the sustainability of production."
"The municipality of Las Tunas also grows in new areas and seeks alternatives to increase food production, especially in the head city, where the largest number of people live."
Regarding the delivery of land in usufruct, Peralta Agüero pointed out that it is a challenge to give them better use, because there are already more than 150 thousand hectares in the hands of 14 thousand producers, and not all of them comply with their social purpose and the delivery of the different products to the State.
He added that Las Tunas is going through difficult circumstances due to the lack of material resources in the middle of the cold sowing campaign, the one with the highest potential of the two that are developed annually and that determines between 60 and 70 percent of the production of the following year.
"The intention is to sow 20,426 hectares and only 10 percent of them will be protected with chemical products; therefore, creativity and the use of some alternatives that have shown some effectiveness are needed in order to comply not only with the sowing, but more importantly, with the yields and the production that we are going to obtain from this program."
In the territory of Las Tunas, the seed and the commitment of the peasants and workers of the different forms of production in the eight municipalities are available, ready to provide more food and to look for alternatives in the face of the adverse conditions imposed by the climate and the US blockade against Cuba.
"The current wet period has not been as good as we would have liked, in terms of the quantity and distribution of rainfall. Sometimes there is no rainfall where it is most needed or it rains a lot in a short period of time and that also does a lot of damage to certain species."
The population is still not satisfied," he said, "but little by little we are beginning to see the recovery of agricultural production. There is a greater presence of products in the markets and in the network of points that not only the Collection Company serves, but also the cooperatives, urban farms and the wheelbarrows authorized for this work."
"The Collection Company must continue to energize its buying and selling processes, and it is up to the cooperatives to achieve stability in the offers. On the other hand, shipments from the municipalities must be complied with in order to have a more equitable commercialization among the population."
