Greater autonomy in agriculture

Cuban
Radar                                                                           Read Spanish Version

Greater
autonomy in agriculture

A
service by the Radio Progreso Alternativa Havana Bureau

On
March 31, Granma
daily
reported that municipal delegations of the Ministry of Agriculture
will "function with a new concept."

"The
exploitation of all the land and improvement of product marketing,
according to local characteristics, are among the lines of work"
of the delegations. The concept has been started in San José
de las Lajas Municipality, province of Havana. According to Granma,
in that territory "cattle farms predominate, and there are about
52,200 hectares of arable land, but only a little over half of that
are appropriately exploited, and more than 3,000 are idle."

The
delegations chosen by petition "will be authorized to make
decisions and assume responsibility with more dynamic criteria in
relation to the agricultural base and for enforcing the current
regulation."

For
experts, the news is attractive, for it can be interpreted as a
greater autonomy in the municipalities for decision making and opens
the possibility, that with the improvement of commercialization, at
present a state monopoly under the Stockpiling Enterprise, other
buyers and distributors could enter the market, either as
cooperatives or private single farmers.

The
report does not mention the functions that delegations would have, or
how close they would be to farmers, a fact that experts point out as
of extreme importance.

Investments
will increase 4-fold

During
a visit to the province of Matanzas, Vice President Carlos Lage
announced that the country will invest about 6 billion pesos this
year. The figure will quadruple the investments in 1995 and 1998,
which was 1.5 billion pesos.

"What
you can see in a visit such as this is that a much larger investment
process is in motion than in previous years, and it is of great
importance for the economy and for the population," he told
Juventud
Rebelde
daily last Sunday. Lage, who is also a Party Politburo member,
claimed that costs could be lower and time of execution shorter.

During
the past weeks, Lage, as well as First Vice President José R.
Machado Ventura, have toured different provinces overseeing works
under construction and basic industries, as well as meeting with
workers and the general population.

New
cell phone offices

Beginning
April 14, Cubans will be able to buy cell phone services. To
accommodate the demand, the joint venture company ETCSA will open 30
new offices in throughout the country.

In
Cuba, the service was limited only to diplomats, foreign residents,
company executives, tourists, some employees of foreign firms and
Cuban officials. An unknown number of the almost 330,000 cell phones
are in the hands of Cubans, who obtained the line through a foreign
friend who signed the contract as his own. In those cases, the
contracts will be legalized in the near future.

A
cell phone line costs 111 convertibles pesos or CUC (1 CUC equals
$1.20 US dollars).

ETECSA
has informed that the measure to broaden the service to all comers
"will allow Cuba to invest in the development of connectivity by
cable, which has an important role in society’s computerization."
Although it was announced that in the future the service would be
paid in the national currency, no date was mentioned.

Electric
motorbikes

One
of the articles whose sale was forbidden to the public made its
appearance on Havana stores on Tuesday, April 1. At Galerías
Paseo, a mall on Paseo Avenue and Malecón, in the El Vedado
neighborhood across the street from the Habana Riviera and Meliá
Cohiba hotels, the first seven bikes were put on sale.

The
electric bikes, as the population calls them, are Chinese built
Haichuan brand. The price is set at 794 convertible pesos (1 US
dollar equals 0.82 CUC) and has a 3 month guarantee. The bike is
lightweight, with a range of 40 kilometers and a maximum speed of 50
km per hour. Its batteries may be charged by simply plugging them
into an outlet at home.

"All
were sold as soon as soon as we opened," said an employee at the
store.

The
store expects that sales will continue according to availability.
"They’ll go as soon as we put them on sale," concluded a
salesman.

Meanwhile,
at other Havana stores Chinese computers were arriving. According to
salesmen, the price would range from 860 to 878 CUC.

More
land for those who are more productive

Orlando
Lugo Fontes, president of the National Association of Small Farmers
(ANAP), told Cuban TV that idle land has begun to be loaned to
individual farmers and to the different types of cooperatives that
exist in the country.

Lugo,
who is also a member of the Council of State, added that "Conditions
had to be created for the massive turnover of idle land." He
pointed out that "municipal delegations of the Ministry of
Agriculture have been set up," as well as a Land Control Center
that will have provincial and municipal agencies "for organizing
the delivery" and "supervision."

Cuba
has 3.5 million hectares of arable land, but 51% is idle or
inappropriately exploited.

Cooperatives
and individual farmers, which are the most productive sectors, have
only 32.6% of arable land.

Most
experts agree that changes in the economy of the island are beginning
precisely in agriculture.