Leadership was not withdrawn after Edelio or Pipo, as he was better known as the founding president, retired from the Paquito González Agricultural Production Cooperative (CPA) in the municipality of Baraguá, in the southeastern province of Ciego de Avila.
Engineer José Alberto González Sánchez, who began as a livestock specialist, took over the reins, contributed to the collection of 520 thousand liters of cow’s milk in one year and assumed the presidency of the productive base, which celebrated four and a half decades of being founded last April 24.
The entity is profitable since its creation, National Vanguard more than 20 years ago and the most comprehensive at present of the Cuban cooperative movement.
«Distinguishing these achievements is the quality of our 343 associates, among them the qualified personnel: six university students and more than 25 mid-level technicians; human resources are a priority here,» González Sánchez emphasizes.
Being different
When the monetary order arrived, the accounts did not add up at the PCA. José Alberto argues that «the diagnosis gave us an economic loss of 2 million pesos, when comparing the high prices of inputs with the sales of our productions, but we started to rotate the land better, to do other things differently, until we reached 6 million pesos of profits in 2021».
He said that the profits grew in 2022 with 8 million pesos; and 27 million pesos in 2023. These dividends are not favored by inflation, but on the basis of more food production, in its condition of founding cooperative of the political productive movement for the 100 thousand annual quintals of viands, vegetables, grains and fruits.
«We have reached 200 thousand on different occasions. Now with the country’s financial limitations for fertilizer imports and other resources, we exceed 120 thousand quintals, with the prospect of increasing agricultural yields because we are benefiting from a loan from Saudi Arabia,» explained José Alberto.
He argued that they have 15 central pivot machines for water irrigation, drip systems in operation and some of this type in the final phase of assembly, with which they should complete 135 hectares dedicated to banana production.
Banana is not the only one with potential. The collective covers the entire branch of miscellaneous crops on more than 1,000 hectares, in whose very fertile soils the potato and bean harvests stood out during the first four months of this year.
To ensure that these lands continue to produce efficiently, they are implementing a seed program and are building an organic fertilizer production center on their land, with a view to applying worm humus to all the plantations.
The germination of a dream
Planting pipes is not a matter of cooperative members. However, they also planted them and are harvesting the fruits of a recently exploited aqueduct for the benefit of some 1,000 inhabitants of 300 homes.
«The objective was also to guarantee a sufficient supply of quality water to the health clinic, the school, the store, the recreational center, the offices and the workshop, among other facilities built in different stages, and improved with the support of the peasant community, in homage to the 65th anniversary of the Agrarian Reform Law, which will be celebrated on May 17, Peasant’s Day», said José Alberto, who is a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, member of the National Bureau of the Small Farmers’ Association (Anap).
