• Submitted by: manso
• Business and Economy
• 01 / 26 / 2011

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Seventy percent of the land the state has distributed among private farmers and cooperatives is in use, but overall 40 percent of arable land on the island continues fallow, according to the results of an official report published by Communist Party daily Granma.

Of 180 million hectares granted to farmers in long-term leases since a reform decree was published in 2008, 70 percent was being “put to use” as of Jan. 11, the article said, adding that the farmers holding a lease of the remaining 30 percent could lose their privileges.

According to the report by the agriculture ministry’s Centro Nacional de Control de la Tierra, 40 percent of Cuba’s arable land was still unused. Of 155,660 applications, only 7,360 were denied, according to an official quoted by Granma.

The most successful cases are already existing private farms that applied for and received additional land, the official said. Fifteen percent of applicants already have an agricultural operation, according to the official. “These [farmers] already have some degree of organization, work discipline, and farming tools that facilitate their production,” the article said.

Most of the distributed land — 727,642 hectares — is used for cattle, followed by various crops, rice, coffee, sugarcane, fruit and tobacco.

Source: www.cubastandard.com/2011/01/25/agriculture-continues-slow-recovery/