Agriculture– Party Second Secretary José Ramón Machado Ventura leads meeting in Pinar del Río to evaluate the impact of the far-reaching economic process on the agricultural sector and efforts to increase production
Agriculture- «The re-ordering is everyone’s task; it touches everyone. Even those not working, because now they need to do so,» stated Party Central Committee Second Secretary José Ramón Machado Ventura, during a meeting in Pinar del Río, to evaluate the impact that the far-reaching economic process has had on the agricultural sector.
Agriculture- In an exchange with Party leaders and government authorities in the province, officials of the agricultural system, outstanding producers, presidents of cooperatives and directors of enterprises, Machado reiterated that the Ordering Task has as its basic objective making changes to address a number of problems that have affected the economy for years, insisting «For this reason, we must achieve this, at the national level, it has had results.»
Machado noted that the meeting was part of a series of meetings to be held in all Cuban provinces, to determine what is happening in this strategic sector, and to detect issues that generate concern.
Lourdes Rodríguez Ruiz, deputy minister of Finance and Prices, referred to a group of corrections recently approved, based on interaction with the grassroots.
Among these is the decision to maintain subsidies for four items (rice, corn for animal feed, industrial tomato and Robusta coffee), to ensure that costs do not exceed the regulated retail price.
She explained that the costs of aviation services for spraying and water used in rice cultivation have also been readjusted.
Likewise, a specific electricity rate has been established for irrigation equipment; the price of domestically produced animal feed was reduced by 60%; and payment for milk collection and delivery to processing facilities were recognized as costs borne by dairy farmers.
Author: Ronald Suárez Rivas | internet@granma.cuMaría Caridad Guindo | internet@granma.cu
The Economy Restructuring Process in Santiago de Cuba
Agriculture-The Economy Restructuring Process in Santiago de Cuba is moving forward with the productive and service activity towards the economic vitality of the province based on the rigorous application of the hygienic-sanitary measures and the new orientations.
The economy in the province of Santiago de Cuba is already marching with the most important transformation it has ever undergone in its monetary and exchange structure.
It also implies a move towards the elimination of excessive subsidies and undue gratuities, as well as the beginning of a reform of wages, pensions and social assistance benefits, which modifies the income of the population.
Agriculture- Just in the year when a historic 8th Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba will be held, one of the most complex and decisive agreements of the two previous meetings is implemented with regard to the invigoration of the economy; although the ideal conditions have not been created, delaying its application would have implied prolonging several deformations that would prevent the achievement of the development rates proposed by the country’s economic-social strategy, and which would be added to those heavy burdens represented by the intensified blockade of the United States and the deep impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Agriculture- Conceived and applied without going through any of the shock formulas which, with the devaluation, would result in automatic peaks of unemployment, insolvency, lack of social protection and other effects contrary to our socialist system. To face this decision has been more difficult because it means to do it without breaking one of the principles that sustain the human and social vocation of the Revolution.
Agriculture- Nevertheless, in the quest to have more vigorous capacities to maintain such conquests, and to take great steps towards the prosperity we require, it was necessary to be more daring in the revaluation of the role of labor, in the redistribution of the existing wealth, and in the creation of favorable conditions for a greater efficiency of the economy.
