Las Tunas peasantry aims to increase yields and production volumes

With the activation of some 700 work commissions in order to ensure compliance with the measures implemented by the Ministry of Public Health and the highest leadership of the country against the spread of the new coronavirus, the farmers of this province are determined to work more to answer the call of the Revolution.

Las Tunas, Cuba.- The development of the 12th Congress of the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP) was postponed in correspondence with the provisions that the country has adopted, as part of the Plan for the Prevention and Control of the COVID-19; however, the call to the peasants is to act with commitment and respond with more food production for the people.

It is well known by the associates to that organization in Las Tunas. Faced with such an imperative, the response of the peasantry is to redouble efforts to obtain more results from the land and make the most of the furrow, because the country thus demands it.

In dialogue with 26Digital, Roberto Medrano Ledezma, president of the peasant organization in the territory, announced that it will be hired a 15 percent above the 32,000 previously committed, as a fundamental contribution that cooperatives make to the call of the Ministry of Agriculture.

"The priorities defined by the National Bureau are directed first to preventive measures to deal with this pandemic, the second is outlined towards the increase in production levels, based on the growing needs of the population and the country's limitations in relation with food import; and the third is about to the treatment that should be given to the work objectives approved in the different organic and balance processes that have just concluded in the province,” he said.

To achieve these objectives, Ledezma explains that they have already visited almost all of the Las Tunas farmers, including the 11,000 landowners, who are willing to work more to produce more food.
As part of these redoubled work routines, farmers will reach greater yields by planting short-cycle products, increasing other production lines in cooperatives and completing the livestock modules of the cooperatives, in order to achieve local self-sufficiency in the communities where they are located.

Coupled with these efforts, prevention against the SARS-CoV-2 virus is also vital in the sector. What is needed is that farmers to produce more food, but preserving their lives as well. In addition to practicing hygiene standards, social distancing and handwashing, their concern not only lies in having the team of oxen ready, but also the protective mask, which each already has more than one, since the FMC-ANAP brigades have made approximately 30 thousand.

The farmers will know how to get ahead and respond to this contingency efficiently since almost 85 percent of the agricultural production in the territory falls on them, and that is their greatest commitment.