Cuba land leases to private farmers on the rise

*Government seeks to reform sector, up food output

*Biggest distribution since post-revolutionary period

*Farmers say takes months to gain access to land

By Marc Frank

HAVANA, July 6 (Reuters) - The ranks of Cuba's family farmers have grown by more than 30,000 this year as the government conducted the biggest land-lease distribution since the country's 1959 revolution in an effort to solve an agricultural crisis, a newspaper reported on Monday.

Communist authorities began leasing 4 million acres of fallow state lands in October, mainly small parcels, to private family farmers and interested individuals as part of an effort by President Raul Castro to reform the state-dominated sector and increase food production.

The official trade union weekly Trabajadores newspaper said a total of 78,113 land leases have been granted since the program began, up from 45,000 in January when figures were last released.

"A study of fallow state lands found there were 1.69 million hectares (4 million acres), of which 689,697 hectares (1.7 million acres) have been leased, or 41 percent," Trabajadores said.

Cuba has not handed out land on such a large scale since shortly after the 1959 revolution when large land holdings were nationalized and some of the acreage given to small farmers.