Why Cuba can't produce enough food.

[El Presidente]

I often get asked why such a fertile country needs to import over 60% of its food. 

This excellent article sums it up well 

 

 

 

https://diariodecuba.com/cuba/1603296618_25561.html

Local food systems, the new agricultural 'joke' in Cuba

"It does not matter if it is a minister or a cadre from the municipal PCC who tells the peasant what to sow, the decision is still not up to the peasant."

The Minister of Agriculture , Gustavo Rodríguez Rollero, spoke on October 19 at the 36th FAO Regional Conference, which takes place online. There he presented the Plan for Food Sovereignty and Nutrition Education of the Country, approved by the Council of Ministers on July 22, and which aims to provide municipalities with greater autonomy with respect to the central power of the State.

This is the most recent attempt to achieve the ridiculous 30 pounds per capita per month of meats, vegetables and grains that have been set as a goal to feed the people. That fidelista grandiloquence is very far away when in 1967 he declared: "The day will come when fruits, vegetables, even milk will be distributed free of charge." And he added: "We know what we are doing." Well, it seems that no, they did not know what they were doing, because 53 years later it is not that there is nothing for free, it is that everything is very expensive and almost impossible to find.

 

The intention of the aforementioned Plan is to decentralize decisions by bringing them closer to the producers of each municipality. They assume that in this way, coordination will be gained and links between agricultural actors in the territory will be fostered. According to Jorge Núñez Jover, president of the Chair of Science, Technology, Society and Innovation at the University of Havana, this will be done: "Sitting at a work table, all the actors", "have to dialogue, seek solutions, eliminate obstacles ", guided by" the municipal government and the Municipal Assembly of People's Power, elected by the people. "

The only mystery regarding this Plan is how long it will last until it is replaced by another similar initiative, all destined for the most humiliating and hungry failure; Simply because what is not giving autonomy to the peasants to organize their activity is only cumbersome and obstructing bureaucracy, it is weeds.

 

It does not matter if it is a minister or a cadre of the municipal PCC that tells the peasant what to sow and at what price he should sell it, the important thing is that the decision is still not made by the peasant.

The failure of the centralized economy is not due to the distance between the decision maker and the economic agents. Therefore, it is not solved by exchanging a "distant" national centralized economy for 168 "nearby" municipal centralized economies. What this would do would be to multiply the problems and, in fact, would create serious complications of lack of coordination between producers from different municipalities, who would have to organize their activity not directly, but through the bureaucrats of their community.

The problem with the centralized economy, at any level, is that the main measures are taken from the inevitable ignorance of those who are not involved in the activity as such, and who in turn have interests and incentives unrelated to the economic success of the project itself. . This alienation of the internal dynamics of each company sclerotizes the decision system, preventing it from responding with the necessary immediacy to the innumerable unforeseen events of all human work.

 

It is assumed that the great step forward will be to replace the verticality of the current system led by the Ministry of Agriculture - which is not very well known what will paint in all this - by a dialogue between municipal, provincial and national actors on agricultural issues . In other words, more batting for the bosses and less batting for the furrow.

According to data published by Jorge Núñez Jover himself in Cubadebate , an unofficial organ of the PCC, each Cuban municipality has an average of between 4,000 and 5,000 farms, plus 4,200 patios and plots that will soon reach 8,000. With which, each municipal political body will have to coordinate more than 10,000 agricultural holdings of different sizes, specializations, yields, geographical characteristics, specific needs and an infinite etcetera of individual specifications. That without ceasing to attend to all other areas of the economy, plus its political and social obligations. It's giddy just thinking about it.

It is unfortunate that they continue to plow the sea with plans and more plans that lead nowhere. Unfortunately, plans are not eaten, plans are a by-product of ministerial guts. This suggests that precisely what they are looking for is to go nowhere, to keep people entertained by playing dress and undress saints; always wearing the same costume, which is not tailored to the saint, but to that of the owners of the game.

[SigSauer516]

They could have written the article in one word: Socialism.

[...]

1 hour ago, SigSauer516 said:

They could have written the article in one word: Socialism.

I politely disagree with your choice of word. It may be tempting to conflate two things one disagree with but I would suggest better words exist if one was to use only one to define the Cuban struggle. You could try corruption, apathy, stubbornness, etc

[MMarbs]

On 10/21/2020 at 4:38 PM, El Presidente said:

"The Minister of Agriculture , Gustavo Rodríguez Rollero, spoke on October 19 at the 36th FAO Regional Conference, which takes place online. There he presented the Plan for Food Sovereignty and Nutrition Education of the Country, approved by the Council of Ministers on July 22, and which aims to provide municipalities with greater autonomy with respect to the central power of the State."

And what number does this plan fall under in the succession of plans that the Cuban regime has come up with in its failure to create even the semblance of a functioning economy? The 50th? Maybe they'll get lucky come the 100th plan.

[1LegLance]

What is funny to me is that the Revolution was supposed to bring power and choice to the people....

Imagine if the Gov just said, Plant farmers Plant and see what happens....oh wait that would be Capitalism, can't have that,