An agricultural province like Las Tunas has to be at the forefront of food production, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, president of the Republic of Cuba, pointed out in this city, when intervening in a working meeting with the main political and governmental authorities of this eastern province.
Las Tunas, Cuba.- The president gave a negative example that Las Tunas has had, at different times, resorting to the Ciego de Ávila province to offer the population some agricultural products.
He explained that the contribution that the province would give to the self-sufficiency of each municipality, and also economically, is very important since 50 percent of what the country spends is related to the acquisition of food.
“We must produce more by expanding the areas and applying bioproducts and biopesticides to replace inputs that have traditionally been imported, Díaz-Canel said, and also stressed that all food production has to be subordinated to the municipality where it is generated and not to provincial entities.
Referring to this issue, Yoel Martínez Vargas, delegate of Agriculture in Las Tunas, said that the sowing of the cold season is at 95 percent and it is expected to be completed in February, for which they have the will and resources.
The manager ratified the commitment to reach 30 pounds per capita of viands and vegetables each month this year, pursue that was endorsed by Gustavo Rodríguez Rollero, Minister of Agriculture, when explaining the existing objective conditions.
In the exchange, in which José Ramón Machado Ventura, second secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, and the Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz participated, the adverse situation of the sugar harvest was explained, which only fulfills its production at 50 percent, mainly due to sugarcane shortages in the mills; although, it was said that in the last week there has been a positive reaction.
During the meeting, which was also attended by the deputy Prime ministers Roberto Morales Ojeda and Alejandro Gil Fernández; as well as Marino Murillo Jorge, head of the Commission for the Implementation and Development of the Guidelines, the implementation of the Ordering Task was acutely analyzed.
Murillo Jorge highlighted the importance of motivating the productive forces to advance in the quality of production, an issue highly criticized by the population, especially merchandises that exceeded prices without a deep examination, both in the state and private sectors.
Gil Fernández, who is also the Minister of Economy, warned about the increase in prices, which can be implemented to obtain profits without taking into account the quality of what is offered.
Regarding salaries, Eraldo González Arias, director of ACINOX Las Tunas, explained that the entity he directs considers that the salary increase does not correspond to the results of the work, especially the workers who represent 77 percent of the workforce, while 111 are supportive of the production activity. By consensus of the President and his delegation, the case of this industry will be re-evaluated.
When addressing the issue of the pandemic, Roberto Morales Ojeda stressed that Las Tunas is one of the provinces with the lowest incidence of COVID-19, with a rate of 5.82 per 100,000 inhabitants, but it is essential that urgent measures be adopted in the capital city to prevent it from falling back to the third phase of the post-COVID recovery stage.
Díaz-Canel called to work tirelessly and without fear to face all the analyzed problems, act with fairness, continue to exchange with the population, and not giving up in the attempt to overcome new challenges.
