The country sent technical advisers to help the province plant 1,000 hectares, 5% of the land available for rice cultivation.
14ymedio, Havana, 21 November 2024 — Despite the failure of similar projects in the past, Vietnam will begin a new rice-growing effort on the island this winter. The project involves planting an initial 1,000 hectares with rice in Palacios, a town in Pinar del Río province. So far, 50% of the seeds have been delivered.
The site, inspected on Thursday by Miguel Díaz-Canel during a visit to the municipality’s Agro-Industrial Grain Company, consists of 300 hectares to be planted by the end of December — the first planting is set to begin on November 15 — with the rest to be planted by February 2025. Provincial officials note that, if all goes well, the project will be expanded to 5,000 hectares.
His face reddened by the sun and his arms draped over the shoulders of Vietnamese technical advisers, the Cuban president cited the importance of the project, stating, “Cuba could be self-sufficient in rice and achieve food sovereignty.” The chance of that happening, however, is far from certain. The size of the available rice-growing acreage in Palacios is, according to state media, roughly 20,000 hectares. Assuming Cuba does provide all 50% of the required seeds, the Vietnamese project will use no more than 5% of that land.
Around 2,500 of the province’s farm workers are being employed in this winter’s rice planting drive
According to an official report released in early November, around 2,500 of the province’s farm workers are being employed in this winter’s rice planting drive. The plan calls for 5,500 hectares to be planted, which should yield between 1.7 and 2 tons per hectare. The province consumes about 1,873 tons of rice a month. With the 6,000 hectares harvested last spring, the province should have enough rice to last a year. That assumes, however, that each hectare achieves maximum yields and that none of the rice is exported overseas or diverted to other sectors of the economy.
“Rice production will continue to grow in the immediate future. The expansion of cultivated areas through different means will also play a key role as long as resources for production are available,” officials promised on November 1. Five days later, Hurricane Rafael hit Cuba’s western provinces, causing major damage to agriculture.
There is no guarantee that Vietnamese aid will help revive the rice industry. Though state media alludes to a “rice-growing tradition” in Palacios, there has also been a history of failures in rice cultivation.
Vietnam has been investing in the town since at least 2009. The highpoint of this partnership came in 2019 when the country spent more than 20 million dollars on machinery, technicians and laboratory supplies to insure that the rice crops thrived, something that did not happen. The province had planned to sow 1,200 hectares in the winter of 2022, a time when the covid pandemic was still raging. State media did not clarify whether or not this was to be done with Hanoi’s help, but the production target of 3.5 tons per hectare was not met.
The rice-growing region of Sierpe is another example of Vietnamese failures
Its experience in the rice-growing region of La Sierpe is another example of Vietnam’s failures in cultivating the grain on the island. The Sur del Jíbaro farm in Sancti Spíritus province seemed not to have been affected by the economic inpacts of covid-19 when it was the subject of a 2021 article in state media which noted that, in spite of the difficulties facing the island’s rice growers, it managed to produce 5.3 tons per hectare, an all-time record.
But by early 2023, Vietnamese tolerance of “Cuban inefficiency” had reached its limit. “They came here twenty years ago but they grew tired. It was worse than trying to grow crops in the sea,” a farmer told 14ymedio at the time. The final blow, he said, was the lack of fuel. A year later, the company’s crop yields fell by 62%.
Last September the government announced it had found a new partner, a privately owned firm, which had agreed to get production at Sierpe up and running again. That partner is Agri Vma, one of the five Vietnamese companies operating in the Mariel Special Development Zone. The firm arrived in Cuba with an initial investment of 21 million dollars in early 2023. Though its business is mainly focused on animal feed, livestock breeding and poultry, its proposal was to launch an experimental planting program with hybrid seed varieties from Vietnam.
“We will share information on growing techniques and provide technical support to ensure success,” said one director, who claimed the company intends is to continue planting the same type of seed on 15,000 hectares throughout the island beginning at the start of the winter season in November. “This harvest, like the previous one, will be donated to the Cuban nation,” she added.
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