In Cuba, 2024 was marked by a strong economic contraction. This financial situation led the agricultural sector to lack the necessary inputs for the development and fulfillment of the different productive plans. Some of them are indispensable for feeding the population.
Poultry, swine and fish farming, among others, decreased with respect to previous years. However, despite the limited resources, the productive sector of the municipality of Contramaestre continued to focus its attention on the implementation of food programs that respond to the demand of the territory, as well as to promote and develop the sector efficiently, as part of the management of local governments and the provisions of the Law of Food and Nutritional Sovereignty and Security.
In 2024, special attention was given to reversing the results of the contracting process. Due to the fact that in 2023 the lack of quality, discipline, preparation of the responsible personnel, information, among other elements, affected the correct implementation of the important process.
For these and other reasons, in the period that ends, agricultural contracting in Contramaestre behaved according to the productive economic scenario, the integration of economic actors, the strengthening of local food systems and the adequate application of legal norms related to the subject such as Decree Law 35.
The strategy resulted in a better functioning and control of the contracting process. This was made known to this website by Jorge Hernández Valdéz, the main specialist in charge of marketing in the municipality.
The contracting with respect to previous stages was very good and totally superior because the contracting process of the year 2023 was not carried out with the required quality which led us to have many defaults, that is, we did not have the organization that we have now, we did not have the conciliation that is currently done with the productive base, with the department of land, there was not a clear demand from the municipality to the Delegation of Agriculture and from this to the company and from the company to the structures. Today it is noticeable that there is greater control, vision, preparation in the personnel in charge because the conditions were created from the beginning in the training of all those involved in this process, the chronogram was created according to the indications received.
This leads us today to the fact that we have almost the figure assigned to the demand by the municipality, both in food, grains and vegetables as well as in milk and meat.In the year that concludes, the municipality of Contramaestre was able to make a greater management and decision making in entities that decide on the economic development and food of the territory.
Such is the case of the America Libre Agroindustrial Company, which a year after its transfer by the Grupo Empresarial Agrícola to the subordination of the local government, worked intentionally with the purpose of fulfilling one of its main missions, to respond to the territorial self-sufficiency.
In 2024 America Libre Agroindustrial Company went through very critical moments – added Ernesto Rosales Molina, director – even so, we have worked very hard with all the structures and the UEBs to achieve our objective, which is to produce for the people, to increase production despite the fuel deficit that the country has been going through, but we have achieved with a lot of effort from our producers that the mission is fulfilled.
We are not going to say that we are complying one hundred percent, but today we are in production at 90 percent of the fulfillment of the plan, which figures are reached by the treatment and yield that we have achieved; for example in crops that in previous moments were below their yield today have higher yields, in this case we have the cassava crop that in previous periods the productions were two or three tons today we are between eight and eleven tons per hectare.
In banana we are between six and seven tons per hectare, in corn we have producers who have reached up to five tons per hectare and in previous years they achieved 15 tons because they have been sensitized with the new planting frameworks with all the training that has been given to producers and have been putting it into practice and we have achieved this transformation, this performance that has led us to today with the fuel deficit that we are not really meeting the planting plan who is at 42 percent but we have seen results in production by putting into practice the new planting frameworks (…)
The company América Libre in 2024 continued to promote the productive pole of Bungo, one of the agricultural development areas in which the sector is working today.In this regard Rosales Molina said we have there 1,168 hectares, we already have more than 60 percent covered between plantain, cassava, sweet potato, plantain vianda that today is already to the satisfaction of Contramaestre, productions that have been marketed at an affordable price at 20 pesos per pound, something that has motivated the population.At this moment we are increasing in the productive pole 50 more hectares of cassava and we have to achieve there 100 hectares of this crop.
We are planting 50 more hectares of plantain out of the 89 hectares already planted and 60 of them are in production. Currently, areas that were poorly exploited are now producing and that is the objective to continue preparing land. We also intend to plant 60 hectares of guava and banana fruit so that the people have a variety of products.We have 134 hectares of beans with very good quality, we are already waiting for 6000 kilograms more from the company with the seed destination to sow in the productive pole with the objective of commercializing and delivering to priority centers of the Contramaestrian territory.
The spring campaign in the municipality of Contramaestre behaved favorably. The strategy resulted in a better functioning and control of the contracting process.This was made known to this website by Jorge Hernández Valdéz, the main specialist in charge of marketing in the municipality.
The contracting with respect to previous stages was very good and totally superior because the contracting process of the year 2023 was not carried out with the required quality which led us to have many defaults, that is, we did not have the organization that we have now, we did not have the conciliation that is currently done with the productive base, with the department of land, there was not a clear demand from the municipality to the Delegation of Agriculture and from this to the company and from the company to the structures.Today it is noticeable that there is greater control, vision, preparation in the personnel in charge because the conditions were created from the beginning in the training of all those involved in this process, the chronogram was created according to the indications received.
This leads us today to the fact that we have almost the figure assigned to the demand by the municipality, both in food, grains and vegetables as well as in milk and meat. In the year that concludes, the municipality of Contramaestre was able to make a greater management and decision making in entities that decide on the economic development and food of the territory.Such is the case of the America Libre Agroindustrial Company, which a year after its transfer by the Grupo Empresarial Agrícola to the subordination of the local government, worked intentionally with the purpose of fulfilling one of its main missions, to respond to the territorial self-sufficiency.
During 2024 the Contramaestrian productive line was prepared for crops of great interest for food and national economy. In the case of the corn contest, which began last August, the municipality’s Grain Drying and Processing Plant forecasted to stockpile close to 10 thousand tons. The plant was preceded by a process of repair, maintenance and preparation of the technological equipment in order to develop a favorable grain harvest.
The industry has been preparing itself,” said José Antonio Camejo Plutín, director of the Grain Drying and Processing Plant, ”first in the area of repairs, reviewing all the means involved in the campaign, the means of calibration, the equipment used to measure humidity, the weighing of grains, fundamentally the drying tower, which plays a fundamental role, since in about four hours between 52 and 60 tons of corn can be dried.
As for the performance of fruit crops such as mango and guava, both behaved favorably. Especially mango had a different outlook from previous periods in terms of marketing.
In this regard, the mini-industry of CCS Miguel Betancourt, Empresa Mixta Tropical Contramaestre S.A., Acopio and other destinations played a fundamental role in the commercialization of this fruit. Empresa Mixta Tropical Contramaestre S.A. had processed more than 3,000 tons of mangoes and 130 tons daily by the end of July.
Tomazo Mayoro, production director of Empresa Mixta Tropical Contramaestre S.A. and representative for the Italian part in Cuba said with all the difficulties that everyone knows but fighting and with desire to do things and thanks to the help from the foreign part which has helped us with the part of the transportation we managed to deliver mango. We continue selling to customers. We are in the process of installing machinery and we are planning to expand the factory and the industry continues to develop.
In the stage that concludes we cannot fail to mention the work of the agricultural extension system, which has allowed producers the empowerment of environmentally friendly technologies, access to varieties of excellent genetic quality and a high productive potential, according to the directors of entities with a strong weight in the productive agricultural development of the municipality.
It has really been teaching us that every day we must be linked to this task and we must continue to improve, training our producers to achieve higher yields in a framework of planting area, looking for new clones that are compatible with the climate, resistant to pests and diseases, since today we do not have enough biological means, mainly chemicals which are very few (….).
On the other hand, the process of bankarization of financial operations has also had an impact on the agricultural sector.This task still presents lights and shadows in an indispensable line of business for the Cuban economy.
Madelaine Novoa Tasé, Commercial Manager of Branch 7941 of the Bank of Credit and Commerce (BANDEC) in Contramaestre, added that the process is not going as we would like, but it is advancing, especially at this time of the year when farmers, owners and usufructuaries receive the liquidations of corn productions and according to Resolution 111, they have to have a current account open to receive these payments and at the same time extract the cash through this branch.
Compared to other municipalities in the province of Santiago de Cuba we are doing well.In fact, it is the municipality that is making the most progress, but as I said before, not as we would like because the opening of current accounts, whether by checkbook or magnetic card, which is the perceived objective of bankarization, requires each producer to prepare a file with a series of legal documents that many still do not have organized and this makes it difficult to process, even so we have not stopped attending them and receiving the means of payment to deposit and pay them for their productions.
The spring campaign in the municipality of Contramaestre behaved favorably.
More than 9,700 hectares were expected to be planted and more than 15,000 hectares of land were prepared.In the contest, the established production plans were fulfilled.
In the current cold campaign the municipality is advancing despite the limitations of resources, for example in the America Libre Agroindustrial Company the campaign is progressing satisfactorily, we already have more than 60 percent of the land planted, argued its director.We have had a fuel deficit which has led us to have this difference in the fulfillment of the plan, but we are convinced that we are going to fulfill the plan of the campaign. We are working together company-structures to achieve the results we are looking for.
In the campaign we are planting cassava, tomato, sweet potato and so on.We must say that the territory is moving forward with its planting plans with the support of the oxen that the producers have, which are really insufficient for the plans we have, but they support us in the production of food, if the fuel situation improves we could reach and exceed the figures agreed in this cold campaign.
All in order to increase our agricultural production.
During 2024 the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP) in Contramaestre developed several actions aimed at the XIII Congress of the peasant organization. This event will be held in Havana from May 15 to 17, 2025.
The program prepared in the Contramaestrian territory includes a before, during and after the realization of the great peasant event. It will be supervised by the ANAP in order to improve and supervise the work carried out during the last five years as well as the work projections.
Thus concludes 2024 for the Contramaestrian agricultural sector, a period marked by a complex economic situation that has affected the assurance of agricultural inputs necessary for food production. A year full of challenges, but the town of Santiago has been able to move forward despite all the difficulties.
In the stage that concludes we cannot fail to mention the work of the agricultural extension system, which has allowed producers the empowerment of environmentally friendly technologies, access to varieties of excellent genetic quality and a high productive potential, according to the directors of entities with a strong weight in the productive agricultural development of the municipality.
It has really been teaching us that every day we must be linked to this task and we must continue to improve, training our producers to achieve higher yields in a framework of planting area, looking for new clones that are compatible with the climate, resistant to pests and diseases, since today we do not have enough biological means, mainly chemicals which are very few (….).
On the other hand, the process of bankarization of financial operations has also had an impact on the agricultural sector.This task still presents lights and shadows in an indispensable line of business for the Cuban economy.
Madelaine Novoa Tasé, Commercial Manager of Branch 7941 of the Bank of Credit and Commerce (BANDEC) in Contramaestre, added that the process is not going as we would like, but it is advancing, especially at this time of the year when farmers, owners and usufructuaries receive the liquidations of corn productions and according to Resolution 111, they have to have a current account open to receive these payments and at the same time extract the cash through this branch. Compared to other municipalities in the province of Santiago de Cuba we are doing well.
In fact, it is the municipality that is making the most progress, but as I said before, not as we would like because the opening of current accounts, whether by checkbook or magnetic card, which is the perceived objective of bankarization, requires each producer to prepare a file with a series of legal documents that many still do not have organized and this makes it difficult to process, even so we have not stopped attending them and receiving the means of payment to deposit and pay them for their productions.
In the current cold campaign the municipality is advancing despite the limitations of resources, for example in the America Libre Agroindustrial Company the campaign is progressing satisfactorily, we already have more than 60 percent of the land planted, argued its director.We have had a fuel deficit which has led us to have this difference in the fulfillment of the plan, but we are convinced that we are going to fulfill the plan of the campaign. We are working together company-structures to achieve the results we are looking for.
In the campaign we are planting cassava, tomato, sweet potato and so on.We must say that the territory is moving forward with its planting plans with the support of the oxen that the producers have, which are really insufficient for the plans we have, but they support us in the production of food, if the fuel situation improves we could reach and exceed the figures agreed in this cold campaign.
All in order to increase our agricultural production.
During 2024 the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP) in Contramaestre developed several actions aimed at the XIII Congress of the peasant organization. This event will be held in Havana from May 15 to 17, 2025.
The program prepared in the Contramaestrian territory includes a before, during and after the realization of the great peasant event. It will be supervised by the Anapist organization in order to improve and supervise the work carried out during the last five years as well as the work projections.
Thus concludes 2024 for the Contramaestrian agricultural sector, a period marked by a complex economic situation that has affected the assurance of agricultural inputs necessary for food production. A year full of challenges, but the town of Santiago has been able to move forward despite all the difficulties.