The will to overcome resource limitations, exploit efficiency reserves and the constant work of workers and managers show that there are ways to overcome the country’s economic problems, according to Roberto Morales Ojeda, member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee and Secretary of Organisation, on a visit to Ciego de Avila.
During his tour of centres of economic interest, Morales Ojeda was accompanied by José Ramón Monteagudo Ruiz, member of the Secretariat of the CC PCC and head of its Agri-Food Department, as well as Julio Heriberto Gómez Casanova, first secretary of the Party in the province, and Alfre Menéndez Pérez, governor.
At the Empresa Agropecuaria La Cuba, in the municipality of Baraguá, the party leader learned about the efforts of their work groups, who in just 36 days sowed just over a thousand hectares (ha) of various crops, including 321 dedicated to bananas.
Much remains to be done to restore the splendour of yesteryear to this, until a few years ago, banana emporium, which, according to data provided to the Cuban News Agency by Carlos Blanco Sánchez, advisor to the company’s management, had a record 2,200 hectares established in the whole of the agricultural production area.
The workers at La Cuba are on the right track, and are looking for alternatives to increase production. Morales Ojeda and his entourage visited an area where 20 hectares of bananas of the FHIA 01, 02, 04 and burro varieties are being cultivated with extradenso technology.
Among the benefits of the sowing method are estimated yields of between 40 and 60 tonnes per hectare (t/ha), irrigation of 40 percent of the area with the consequent saving of water, as well as the use of biological fertilisers and zeolite, which add to the aspiration of ending the year with around 1,000 ha of bananas established in the Baraguense company and the projection of a total recovery to levels preceding those of the pandemic for the next two to three years.
The visit also reached the Agricultural Production Cooperative (CPA) Triunfo de la Revolución, belonging to the Empresa Agroindustrial Azucarera (EAA) Ciro Redondo.
This CPA has a drip irrigation system for 60 hectares of the sweet grass, which has been cultivated for three years, and which only received a cut two years ago with a yield of 220 t/ha.
The synchronisation problems of the modern bioelectric plant next to the Ciro Redondo power plant made it impossible for several producers to harvest the crop in the last harvests, which is why the CPA estimates a yield of 100 t/ha for the coming season in this efficient irrigation system.
Morales Ojeda, in an exchange with the directors of the productive base and of the EAA Ciro Redondo, was informed of how, given the problems derived from the harvests in recent years, in order not to deteriorate their economic indicators, they have ventured more strongly into the promotion of various crops as a means of income.
The organisational secretary of the CCPCC was interested in the progress of the repairs to the bioelectric plant, a million-dollar investment that to date has not yielded the expected results.
In order to deal with any imponderable in the synchronisation of the renewable energy plant with the sugar mill known as the Colossus of the Centre, the repair of the Primero de Enero power station is planned so as not to compromise, once again, the productive agreements of the province.
The planting of sugar cane, various crops and also the sugar harvest activities of the sugar cooperatives should deserve special attention and analysis in the efficient use of inputs such as fuel, dedicating it to the most strategic aspects of the moment, Morales Ojeda pointed out.
Later, the political leader was in the Unidad Empresarial de Base (UEB) Muebles Lídex, where he was interested in the destination of the productions, the average salary of the workers and the use of the profits that can be destined to finance the construction and repair of housing for the workers.
Apart from the production and commercialisation of quality furniture for the tourism sector, the domestic market and export, Lídex also has social commitments with the community of 9 de Abril, which it has supported with the painting and beautification of two medical offices and the primary school.
The donation of a children’s playground, help for pregnant women under 18 years of age, as well as constructive actions to guarantee the water supply and the repair of the bodega are added to the community work.
The entity’s directors commented that they take advantage of the options for linking up with new economic actors for the use of the installed capacities and the UEB’s leading role prevails up to the sale of the products.
At all points of the tour, the organising secretary of the CCPCC was interested in the functioning of the political life of each entity and the entry of new militants into the Party and the Young Communist League.
Morales Ojeda’s working tour of the productive centres of Avila is also a response to the fulfilment of the agreements of the 8th Plenary Session of the CCPCC, of the last session of the National Assembly of People’s Power and of the projections for the correction of distortions and the revival of the economy.