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Cuban soil yields less rice and beans than 5 years ago


Workers in a market offer products in Havana (Cuba).
Workers in a market offer products in Havana (Cuba).

In the last 5 years, Cuban soil yielded 25% less citric while cocoa dropped to less than half of its previous production.

Recent research about the yielding of agricultural products in Cuba over the last five years determined that there has been a decrease in rice, beans and corn--all extremely important dietary products for the average Cuban citizen.

Taking 2007’s production as reference, rice production in 2012 decreased by 15% in tons yielded per hectare (approximately two acres). Corn decreased by 21% and beans decreased by a hundred pounds for every half ton of beans harvested.

Rafael Pérez, a farmer from Yateras, stated that his farm does not yield as much as before and although he farmed an extra acre to compensate for the decrease in production, “the poor soil doesn’t help and the plants look weak and sickly."

Cuba's Statistical Yearbook shows that during the last five years, sugar cane yielded 4% less than what it produced before when cultivated in the same amount, and the land now yields 60% less when compared to harvests of a mere quarter of a century ago.

According to recent official statistics, more than 70% of Cuban farming soils show an acute degradation due to erosion, acidity, salinity, low organic content, decreased fertility and deficient drainage.

Rolando Pupo, a tobacco farmer from San Juan y Martínez in the province of Pinar del Río, argues that neither the farmer nor the State agencies have the power or the necessary resources to improve the soil's yield. Pupo adds that a farmer working with an oxen team, a half-destroyed hand plow and who is hungry most of the time, is not the right mix to improve the production of any soil. There are stark differences in the agricultural yields between the private and the State owned farms.

Sweet orange also suffered a drastic decrease in tons per hectare. Cuban soils yielded 25% of this citric and cocoa dropped to half of what was produced five years ago.

Eudel Cepero, former scientist of the Cuban Soils Conservation Agency, maintains that the deforestation process that has been taking place mainly in the mangrove swamps, as well as the overuse of water of artisan wells, has depleted the available water storage and allowed the sea water to connect and mix with phreatic lines, thereby increasing the salinity of the water and, as a consequence, that of the soils.
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    Adriel Reyes

    Adriel Reyes is a journalist, researcher and university professor whose experience spans the radio, television and Internet platforms at The Martis. Specialist in Cuba's social issues. Follow him on Twitter: @ElZunzun
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