• Submitted by: manso
• Business and Economy
• 09 / 06 / 2011

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2011.09.05 - 11:34:17 / radiorebelde.icrt.cu / Havana, Cuba.- Even with the serious drought period that has been affecting the island since a year ago, mainly in its central and western regions, the root vegetable production will increase up to a 14 % by the end of the current year 2011 in comparison with last year´s same type of production.

According to Gilberto Díaz Lopez, national director of varied crops in the Ministry of Agriculture, this achievement has a lot do with the reorganization of the aforementioned institution as part of the updating Cuban economic model that look for bigger volumes of productions with a high efficiency as well as the delivering of land that was being left idle or poorly exploited in order to be used for varied crops, taking into account that more than 70 % of the nearly 300 thousand hectares delivered are being properly used.

Gilberto Díaz highlighted that the priorities among the crops to be produced include banana, manioc and starchy tubular vegetable. Besides, he added that in the case of vegetables, mainly tomatoes and pepper, more than 100 000 tons were delivered to the industry, thus fully fulfilling the plan ahead of what was originally planned for the current year.

Meanwhile, the delivery of idle lands will continue to be carried out and even increased; as was approved in the last Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, therefore, it should be taken into account growers with the best regional results and productions.

Regarding the potato crop, the draught forced to readjust the sowing plan. However, it production surpassed the almost 166 000 tons originally planed. Moreover, provinces having a good yield per hectare include Matanzas, Villa Clara, Ciego de Ávila, Santi Spíritus and Cienfuegos.

The above mentioned results are meritorious taking into account that the new Cuban provinces of Artemisa and Mayabeque, where 50% of the aforementioned crops of the nation are harvested, had a deficit of over 10 thousand tons due to the direct impact of draught and some diseases that attacked the crops.

The protected crops, on their part, are located in specialized facilities designed for their production during the entire the year that had been seriously damaged by hurricanes as well as the economic consequences of the Cuban special period. However, there has been a recovery of 95 % of the almost 1700 facilities of that kind nationwide that have almost 158 hectares each with a current yield of 300 tons per hectare.

According to Gilberto Díaz, the guidelines of the Revolution for the Economic and Social policies, approved in the 6th Congress of the Communist Party, are linked directly to the production of food and has received an effective and progressive answer in the agriculture sector as it is required by our nation. By José Cabrera Peinado and Translated by: Juan Carlos Caballero Puig