May 6, 1999
By Víctor Rolando Arroyo, Union of Independent Cuban Journalists and Writers.
PINAR DEL RIO - Much of the 400,000 acres of agricultural land dedicated to cattle breeding in the province of Pinar del Río by state institutions are in deplorable condition due to neglect in maintenance and lack of resources for renewal.
The last decade has been difficult for the area's cattle ranching. It has proven the instability of a policy that sustains such ambitious national projects without adequate funding.
A territorial distribution of agricultural activities gradually drove cattle breeding from traditional lands, where cattle herds could have grazed intensively. This would have resulted in less expensive machinery and cattle feed and better care of herds, given the reduction in the areas to maintain, as well as a better worker pool and specialization. The cattle breeding areas are widely infested with marabou brush, as in the decade-old Punta de Palma operation, located southwest of Pinar del Rio. Its pasture areas are more than 12% covered with the noxious weeds.
In the majority of provinces, 68% of cattle breeding areas exhibit low organic matter, high soil acidity, poor drainage and a hostile topography. Let us add to these limiting factors the fact that the cultivated soil, planted with artificial pasture, is subject to high animal loads per area unit, resulting in a rapid decrease of its productive life, estimated at no less than 10 years, but in reality not exceeding three.
The result of the above is a concrete reduction of the feed volume per animal, which means the desired productivity is not reached.
Milk production per animal reaches only half of its potential. In 1998, the province of Pinar del Río produced 6 millions fewer liters than in 1993. Today, that city's dairy operation receives scarcely 10% of needed raw material, cutting its work shifts from three to only one. Milk and dairy products consumption is seen here as a luxury, as is the benefit of the essential proteins provided by beef cattle.
A reorganization of the agricultural activities in the territory, coupled with rationality and efficiency, would promote the return of abundant crops, stimulating the peasant sector.
If the resources disproportionately invested by the regime in inefficient cattle breeding operations would have been used in an efficient manner, stimulating the peasant sector from the beginning, and coupled with a sound policy of land distribution, there would be no theft or slaughter of cattle today.
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