GAF
Cuba promotes the creation of agricultural production poles
Cuba today is promoting the formation of agricultural and forestry productive poles aimed at increasing food supplies to large cities, substituting imports and increasing exports through value chains, reported a specialized source.
In the first stage, work is being done on the constitution of 64 poles, including four to harvest rice and grains, three fruit trees, five coffee and cocoa growers, and eight loggers, said Maury Hechavarría, Vice Minister of Agriculture (Minag), when intervening in the radio and television program Mesa Redonda. He specified that Minag Resolution 384/2021 defines them as the system of conscious, voluntary and orderly coordination and articulation of the economic actors of a certain region based on the integral management of agro-industrial value chains and innovation processes, technical assistance, agricultural extension and training to generate products and services with high added value. Published on September 3, the legal regulation establishes that such organizations have integration as a principle by being made up of companies, cooperatives, producers, self-employed (private), science, technology and innovation entities and universities. Other principles, he said, are territoriality, return on income, and foreign trade powers. He commented that by concept of internal sales in foreign currency the sector received 4.5 million dollars last year, a figure that quintupled to 20.9 million dollars in mid-August, due to online sales, those of the Special Zone of Development Mariel, those of the chain store system and joint ventures. Hechavarría said that among the functions of these poles, it stands out to produce to increase food supplies to large cities, to achieve effective import substitution, and to increase exports through value chains. It is also a way for development with the massive introduction of new technologies and advances in science, favoring technical assistance, training and agricultural extension and facilitating the improvement of the living conditions of the communities. By establishing themselves in a specific geographic area, they must be a source of secure employment for the population of the region it covers and surrounding areas, report economic and social benefits, introduce technologies such as precision agriculture, seeds and breeds of productive animals of high genetic value, and provide professional services to the productive base. These poles may specialize in various crops, rice, tobacco, sugar, citrus, coffee, cocoa, natural fibers, poultry, livestock, pigs, wood, fruit, grains, and other agricultural and forestry productions. The creation of these poles is one of the 106 measures approved by the Cuban government to strengthen the agricultural sector and the socialist state enterprise, with the aim of advancing in better conditions and increasing the supply of food to the population.
