Cuba's agricultural decline sparks major reform

"We have been calling for these changes for many years and expect more will be needed in the future," a local economist said, asking his name not be used.

More than 1,000 cooperatives working state lands since huge farms were broken down in the early 1990s are benefiting from the changes as well, including the doubling and even tripling of state prices for their goods.

INEFFICIENT

Around 50 percent of the state cooperatives operate at a loss and while they cover far more land than the private sector, they produce far less.

Cuba's deputy agriculture minister, Alcides Lopez, announced last month that state cooperatives would be given more credit and resources and more latitude in deciding what to produce and where to sell their output.

"It is the opportunity we have been waiting for, local and more direct attention from the authorities and resources so we can work," farmer Diogenes Fernandez said in a telephone interview from the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba.

"Up to now our hands have been tied, there was nothing to work with, little motivation. Now everything is changing," Fernandez, a member of a state cooperative, said.

Meanwhile, both private and public sugar cooperatives were told last month that if they can reach yields of 70 metric tons per 2.5 acres (one hectare) or more, they can produce whatever they want on extra land they now have or are granted in the future, official media reported.

"Conceptually, decentralizing decision-making and resource allocation from the national to local level is a step in the right direction," international agriculture and sugar industry analyst G.B. Hagelberg said.