Raul Castro overhauls Cuba's farm bureaucracy
Reuters
By Marc Frank
HAVANA, May 1 (Reuters) - Cuban President Raul Castro has finished shifting control over agriculture into local hands and has cut bureaucracy dramatically in an effort to stimulate food production, the Communist party newspaper Granma said on Thursday.
Granma said decision-making had moved from the national government to the municipal level and a large number of departments had been eliminated.
The Granma story was the first official word of the downsizing, though other aspects of the reform have been mentioned by the media and reported earlier by Reuters.
For decades land use and food distribution has been directed by the Agriculture Ministry in Havana.
With food imports rising to almost $2 billion in 2007 and Cubans complaining about soaring prices, Castro has put agriculture at the top of his agenda since taking over from his ailing older brother Fidel in February.
"Food production should be a primary task for Party leaders, who must be conscious of the fact that, in the present and as far as the future may be discerned, is a matter of maximum national security," Raul Castro told Communist party leaders earlier this week.
Cuban yields for most produce and livestock are below average for the Caribbean and Central America, experts say, and the government admits about 50 percent of arable land is under-utilized or simply fallow.
Cuban farmers complain the cumbersome state-run system has not worked, leaving crops to rot and farmers without timely supplies.
"The municipal agriculture delegations -- an organizational process that has just concluded -- will assume the responsibility for the functioning, development and control ... of agricultural production," Granma said.
"The need is more urgent due to the approval of the reorganization of the agricultural system, that involves the elimination of 104 companies (departments) and the shifting of the role of the majority that remain to service providers," the newspaper said.
Farmers have previously told Reuters that decision-making, from land use to resource allocation, recently had moved to the local level, that stores are opening where they can buy some supplies for the first time in decades and increasingly they can sell their produce directly to local consumers and state institutions like schools and hospitals.
Also, more land is being granted to private farmers and 1,100 cooperatives that produce more than half the country's produce on 20 percent of the tilled land, with the remainder owned by the state. (Editing by Jeff Franks and Eric Walsh)
A tobacco farm in Cuba. 



In an effort to boost its troubled agricultural sector, Cuba announced a major shift in the management of the country's farms, which are to be placed under the control of over 150 local delegations rather than the national government. The move was announced in '''', the official newspaper of the .

On Thursday, ''Granma'' reported that the management of the farms has moved from the national government's Agriculture Ministry to the municipal level. The decision-making will now be handled by 169 new local delegations. The reform also involves the elimination of 104 departments which have been deemed unnecessary.  

"The municipal agriculture delegations — an organizational process that has just concluded — will assume the responsibility for the functioning, development and control ... of agricultural production," ''Granma'' said. The move is intended to "stimulate agricultural production, perfect its sale and increase the availability of food and, in this way, substitute imports."

President Raúl Castro, who succeeded his brother Fidel in February, has made agriculture one of the top priorities for Cuba. At a meeting with Communist Party leaders earlier this week, Raúl called food production "a matter of maximum national security." In past weeks, Raúl has said he wants to promote the decentralizing of food production, which he believes will decrease the country's dependency on foreign imports.

Officials estimate that government mismanagement has resulted in 51 percent of Cuba's arable land becoming underused or uncultivated. Also, Cuba imported $1.7 billion worth of food in 2007, a number that is expected to reach over $2 billion this year.

The announcement came as hundreds of thousands took to the streets in  for the annual  parade. Raúl Castro attended the parade, but did not speak, instead choosing to smile and wave from a podium as marchers streamed past. The event lasted only 2 hours, a large departure from previous years. Before Raúl's presidency, Fidel Castro's speeches themselves sometimes lasted close to 2 hours, and the parades often featured singing or skits.

Although Raúl did not speak at the parade, Salvador Valdés Mesa, head of the , used his speech as an opportunity to promote economic efficiency and productivity. "It is fundamental to concentrate efforts on increasing production and productivity, above all of food," he said.