Radio Cadena Agramonte emisiora de Camagüey
Havana, May 17 – As Cuba celebrates Peasant's Day and the 66th anniversary of the first Agrarian Reform Law, the XIII Congress of the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP, for its acronym in Spanish) concludes today.
Inaugurated the day before, the conclave aims to socialize practices and adopt strategies to increase agricultural production and thus channel government efforts aimed at achieving food sovereignty.
Distributed across three commissions, in the day, 397 delegates debated the organization's structural strengthening, its political work, and productive and economic issues.
The Association's work is vital to carrying out food projects and programs on the government's agenda, prioritized with the goal of reversing the current difficult economic situation.
ANAP members, usufructuaries, owners, tenants, and peasant families manage 45 percent of the arable land in the Caribbean country.
They have the mandate to prioritize productions that constitute exportable items, such as tobacco, coffee, cocoa, honey and charcoal.
Also, the task of raising the crops of rice, beans, corn and other products that replace imports, consume great efforts to recover livestock and increase the planting of bananas, cassava, sweet potato, taro, grains, fruits and short-cycle crops.
These topics were the focus of the interventions of the meeting participants, in which they stressed the need to increase cane production, exploit land efficiently and protect livestock.
Several producers presented their results based on the application of science and agroecology, the use of bioproducts, and animal attraction, and expressed their willingness to share their experiences.
There was also consensus that the US government's economic blockade hinders the nation's agricultural and livestock growth, but it does not contribute to inefficiencies associated with organizational or subjective problems.
The final day of the session will feature a debate on the Congress report, a discussion of the organization's new statutes, and the election of its National Committee.
This Friday marks the 66th anniversary of the signing of the first Agrarian Reform Law by the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro.
The legislation outlawed large estates and nationalized more than 402 hectares, most of which were in the hands of US companies, which were then handed over to tens of thousands of peasants.
The signature was signed exactly 13 years after the assassination of peasant leader Niceto Pérez by landowners, an event that served as one of the foundations for the creation of ANAP on May 17, 1961. (Text and photo: PL)
