• Submitted by: admin
• Business and Economy
• 12 / 12 / 2006

As part of the restructuring process of the sugar industry, which Cuba has been undertaking over the past few years, the workers of that sector in eastern Las Tunas province have begun planting timber-yielding trees on more than 10,200 hectares of land previously dedicated to sugar cane plantations.

Engineer Luis Garcia Mercochine, a local specialist from the sugar industry, told the Cuban News Service that the program will run until 2010.

He also said that so far 128,400 hectares have also been sown with root and green vegetables, or have been used to raise animals.

The reforestation process is especially important in Las Tunas, as a mere 13.6 percent of its total area is covered with trees-- a figure that is notably below the countrys average of 24.5 percent. Such a factor is one of the principal causes of the severe drought that has affected that province over the past ten years.

Source: Periodico26.cu