Cuba Looking To Double Rice Production

The Cuban government is looking to double its rice production as it embarks on an ambitious project to tackle its domestic food crisis.

According to Cuba’s Deputy Agriculture Minister Juan Pérez Lamas, the effort will involve state-owned enterprises, cooperatives and individual farmers, family plots and farms run by the Revolutionary Armed Forces.

Earlier this year, President Raúl Castro had announced new agrarian reforms aimed at stimulating food production in Cuba’s rural and urban settings.

Marcio Porto, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization representative in Cuba, commented on the will of the Cuban government to tackle the food crisis and praised the technical cooperation the Cuban government has always offered to other Caribbean countries through FAO.