Cuba Invests in Increased Rice Production

HAVANA TIMES, Jan 19 — Cuba will be making substantial investments to increase rice production, having already purchased more than 70 new tractors and 120 harvesters, reported the Trabajadores newspaper.

Currently efforts are underway to re-condition irrigation and drainage systems, improve roadways, and repair kilns and mills, read an official update from the Ministry of Agriculture.

Cuba imports more than half of all its domestically consumed rice, a grain that subject to the upward price trend on the international market. At the close of 2011, it was trading at $620 USD per ton.

Worker productivity and soil yields on the island remain far from reaching their full potential, said one specialist.