The non-fulfillment of the spring cane sowing - with only 38 percent of the plan - and the low rhythm of the cold season, in which the sector is immersed, is a real threat to the sustainability of sugar production in a territory committed - due to its potential - to the nation's development programs in a sector that is culture, tradition, and identity.
Las Tunas, Cuba.- For example, from December 2020 to June 2024, the decrease in sugarcane production will account for more than 33,000 hectares; that is, 48 percent of a land fund destined for these plantations, extending over 96,902.1 hectares.
All local agro-industrial sugar companies are on this path because of repeated failures to meet sowing projections. Over 55,000 hectares are empty, 58 percent of the allocated arable land.
Well-known objective factors -and others of a subjective nature- impact this universe of unfulfilled plans; which act as a barrier against the imperative advance amid the nation's complex economic situation. Because “it is possible to do more with the scarce resources available,” explained Eddy Felipe Hechavarría, director of the Azcuba Coordination and Technical Supervision Group in the province.
To achieve this, it is an urgent necessity to change the strategies implemented so far in sugar cane sowing if we want our sugar mills to remain active because the poor results of the territory in this activity cannot be justified with the limitations of fuel, although this shortage and others linked to the lack of lubricants, batteries, and tires are a real obstacle to better use of agricultural machinery.
Walter Simón Noris, first secretary of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) in Las Tunas, urged the leaders of the Azcuba Sugar Group, the agro-industrial sugar companies and production units in the province, to make better use of the available resources to transform the current situation and achieve better results.
Simón Noris indicated plowing the land and planting the seeds without wasting time, to prevent the persistent rains from damaging the work carried out and forcing them to return to those areas already prepared. ‘We are burying oil,’ said the party leader.
He called for changes in the mentality and the way of managing the processes, and to improve the control systems over the limited resources that the country allocates to the preparations for the coming harvest.
It is also necessary to increase the pace of sowing, to involve the workers in the sector, and to organize the popular support that has traditionally been decisive in the fulfillment of the plans for this important activity, which is a guarantee of the aspiration that the sugar mills in the territory will continue to mill and that the communities will receive the benefits derived from it.
The first secretary of the PCC Provincial Committee criticized the lack of awareness among most workers regarding the 93 measures approved to revitalize the sugar agro-industry. Additionally, there is resistance to the establishment of labor collectives, which seek to increase efficiency and improve salaries in line with performance.
The political leader called not to disappoint the confidence of the country's leadership in the Las Tunas agro-sugar workers, tangible in the repeated allocations of the highest volumes of sugar production corresponding to one province.
Delays have also affected food production programs designed to improve nutrition for workers and their families and to benefit surrounding communities. So far, only 28 percent of the available land in the production bases has been used, and the creation of livestock modules has been slow.