Latin American Network Information Center - LANIC

-DATE-
19680530
-YEAR-
1968
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
SPEECH
-AUTHOR-
F. CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
DEDICATION OF THREE WATER MANAGEMENT PROJECTS
-PLACE-
CAUTO RIVER NEAR BAYAMO, ORIENTE PROVINCE
-SOURCE-
HAVANA DOMESTIC TV
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19680531
-TEXT-
CASTRO OUTLINES FUTURE AGRICULTURAL PLANS

Havana Domestic Television and Radio Services in Spanish 1540 GMT 30 May 68
F

[Speech by Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro at the dedication of three
water management projects at the Cauto River intake project near Bayamo,
Oriente Province--live]

[Text] Comrade Workers, 7 months ago we gathered in this area to launch the
work of the invasion brigade, We met on land very familiar to you, land
noted for immense tracts of bush and marabu weeds, which flooded every time
it rained heavily, not to speak of the effects 0f hurricanes. This was one
of the areas which was completely flooded in the wake of hurricane Flora.
It is an area without roads and in completely deplorable condition. We
gathered here to launch the agricultural, economic, and social development
program for this region.

As I began to speak today, someone was talking about the fact that his
house was caving in and that he needed a new one. However, among other
things, we can say what house is not caving in here? What house was not,
and to a large degree is still not, a hut in the worst possible condition.
However, hardly had 7 months elapsed when this region saw thousands of
caballerias of land cleared, hundreds of kilometers of canals built, and
three diversion dams constructed, one of which we are dedicating today.

It seems really incredible that a Plan of this magnitude and works of this
type have been achieved in such a brief time. Those experienced in water
management construction estimate that a project of this kind takes months
to plan and not less than 2 years to build. It must also be said that in
January, the plans were still incomplete and that they were really
completed as the work processed.

Construction Plans and Equipment

This construction began approximately in January and today you have seen
the first turbines in operation, pumping the water to the areas where rice
is being cultivated. The Bayamo diversion dam was also completed in record
time, and we must say that our workers and technicians have performed a
real feat. Without their effort, those caballerias planted to rice could
not have been planted this year.

What these water management works mean to all our people can best be
understood in terms of the past year, a year in which this province
suffered the drought's worst effects. It can be said that memory does not
reveal a single year with more adverse weather conditions than this past
one. The overwhelming progress in water management projects in a period of
5 years makes possible the irrigation of more than 50 percent 0f the farm
lands of this nation.

Preparation of the area was begun by the gigantic brigade which bulldozed
3,218 caballerias in this region. This task was performed between 1
November and 24 December, and included the following; Heavy buldozing, 1349
caballerias; medium bulldozing, 1,353; and light bulldozing, 516. The
equipment included 130 DC-8's, 20 T-100's, 12 tank recovery vehicles, and 5
DT-250's. [Presumably all caterpillar-tread tractors.]

In the utilization of trees, the Institute of Forestry Development and
Utilization of the lumber resulting from clearing operations. Up to date,
the following has been produced; 2,415,000 feet of lumber in balks, 4.87
million feet of logs, 71,499 cords of firewood, 103,599 sacks of charcoal,
4,017,000 Palm fronds. In this task of recovering forestry products, 1,982
workers participated, in addition to the following pieces of equipment; 3
bulldozers, 7 cranes, 2 graders, 96 trucks, and 4 tractors for towing logs.

In order to fill the water requirements during the first phase 0f the plan,
an additional volume of 257 cubic meters of water per harvest are needed by
1968. To guarantee that amount or water. Projects requiring the following
amounts of work have been accomplished; 281 kilometers of primary and
secondary main canals have been dug, 6,851,196 cubic meters of dirt has
been moved in canals, dams, tunnels, walls, and so forth. To accomplish
these projects, the following material was used; 1,199 metric tons of sheet
and reinforcing steel, 25,000 cubic meters of reinforced concrete, and
250,000 sacks of cement. The construction equipment included: 91
bulldozers, 7 graders, 27 caterpillars, 25 road graders, 16 earthmovers,
and 103 dump trucks, concrete mixers, electric plants, and so on. Nearly
1,600 workers have worked for nearly 6 months on those projects.

Major Water Management Projects

One of the main projects is the tapping of the Cauto River, which has a
capacity 0f taking 20 cubic meters per second, or the equivalent of 456
million gallons daily. This is more than the total Pumping capacity of all
the aqueducts of the country, including those of Havana Marianao and
Santiago. Another project, the Rayamo Dam, will take 10 cubic meters per
second from the Bayamo River. The Salado Dam will force the waters of the
Salado, Rioja, and Naranja Rivers to flow into the main El Cauto River
canal.

Topographic studies; Studies are being made under the supervision of the
Cuban Geodetic and Surveying Institute, which employs Personnel from the
Construction Ministry topography schools, and professors and students of
the institutes and basic secondary schools of Manzanillo and Holguin. The
students of those schools are here, and they say that on 27 May they are
going to have a graduation ceremony at El Turquino. [applause]

Plans for this year include studying the possibilities of 1,150
caballerias, of which 500 are already due. As you know, to build canals,
dikes, and irrigation systems, it is necessary to completely and
accurately, know the terrain. That is the goal of these vanguard comrades
of the hydraulic projects. [Shouting and cheering]. They say that they have
a group of Soviet teachers who are instructing them well. As you know, they
are the vanguards of our hydraulic projects at all levels, who are creating
conditions so that water will flow and spread.

Ricefield Irrigation

It is easy to say that a ricefield can be developed, and perhaps there are
many who think that these tasks are as easy as they look in their
imagination. All the same, the Oriente ricefields under development show to
all of us the immense effort we must all make, the immense effort a people
must make if we want to guarantee, through modern methods, the food base a
growing population needs.

Here is some information regarding the Oriente Province ricefield project
on the Cauto River Basin. Last Year, 751 caballerias were planted to rice,
and if you subtract roads, ditches, and dikes, the area was reduced to 6l8
caballerias. 1968, of the 1,437 additional caballerias, 1,150 caballerias
net will be planted to rice. We also have to subtract buildings, housing,
and so forth. In 1969, we expect to prepare 1,749 new caballerias of rice.
Therefore, in 1969, this rice region should cover an area of 3,937
caballerias gross, 3,168 caballerias net. In the future, that is in 1970, a
part of this area may be harvested twice a year. This year only one harvest
will be made. Why? Because the water available in the El Mate Dam must be
used for irrigating cane. This means that in the coming sugar harvest large
areas of sugarcane will be irrigated with the water from El Mate, just as
in the area of Manzanillo, where the water of the Yara River, impounded in
the Mate and Paso Malo Dams, will be used.

In November of this year, new dams will be initiated--Pedregal, which will
dispense its water through the holding dam of El Rayamo and the canal built
there. The Leonero Dam will also be built, and we expect to gather the
needed equipment to begin to build dam number 24, which will have an
water-holding capacity of some 200 million cubic meters. Therefore, by the
end of next year, in this region alone, we will have an additional capacity
of approximately 300 million cubic meters of water. In the future, as you
know, it will be necessary to build dams on the Buey, Cautillo, Bayamo, and
El Guaninicu Rivers where the Canasta Dam will be built. This dam alone
will have a capacity of more than 300 million cubic meters of water.
Construction on the Canasta Dam, which will surely be the largest in Cuba,
expected to begin in 1970.

Therefore every year that passes in the next 5 years we will have hundreds
of millions of new irrigation capabilities [as heard], that is, hundreds of
millions of cubic meters. This will permit us, at the end of this project,
to place practically the entire region under irrigation, to control Floods,
control nature, prevent destruction and damage, and place this area at the
service of the welfare of man. These are not mere promises. This revolution
has been characterized by its deeds and not by promises. In general, deeds
precede words, Thus, perhaps a considerable number of the things that are
done in the country are not known, because the important thing is not
propaganda, but to construct, create, and develop our country. At the end
of the plan in 1970 in this province, we will be raising more than 5,000
caballerias of rice--5,000 caballerias--we will be able to harvest part of
that area twice by 1969.

However, we will no be satisfied with just increasing the area under
cultivation, but rather we will try by every means possible to obtain the
highest possible yields through proper selection of seeds, fertilization,
and war against plagues and weeds. If we can produce 800 or 1,000 quintals,
we must not be satisfied with only 500. Anyone can understand that after
such immense work, it is of the utmost importance to seek maximum yield per
caballenias. There are, potential new areas that may be used for rice after
1970 in a large area between Manzanillo and Bayamo. Naturally, drainage and
other types of work must be performed there.

Agricultural Construction

In agriculture, this year's plan calls for the preparation of 1,150
caballerias. The following has been done so far; a total area of 1,506
caballerias of land surveyed and marked, 1,432 caballerias plowed, 925
caballerias disc-harrowed four times, 725 caballerias leveled twice, 375
caballerias ditched, and 92 caballerias planted. All of this work involved
29 bulldozers, mine graders, 43 T-l00's, 40 DC-54's, 17 CD-6's, two
all-purpose tractors, 203 MCZ's, and others with rubber tires. An average
of 1,944 workers, machinery operations and manual laborers, have worked on
various projects, 773 worked in the agricultural-livestock youth brigades.

The construction plan to be executed by the Construction Ministry is as
follows: 25 rice-drying buildings called for in future plans, eight of
which will be built under the 1968 plan and eight others now under
construction. Prospective plans call for the construction of 15 500-man
dormitories, 10 under the 1968 plan and one in progress. Other plans call
for 2,100 housing units, 400 under the 1968 plan and 400 in progress; 15
fertilizer storage units, 15 in prospective plans and nine in 1968-four
maintenance shops in the prospective plan and in the plan; eight airstrips
in prospective plan, with five in the 1968 plan and two presently in
progress. Town Twelve-and-a-Half and Town 1,009--apparently the towns here
have arithmetical names [crowd laughter]--will all have community services
such as a municipal center, a day nursery, primary businesses, school,
polytechnical school, service centers, auto repair shops, movies,
warehouses, waterworks, sewers, and electricity.

Used in all MICONS projects are eight bulldozers, five cranes, three power
graders, four loaders, three rollers, 39 dump trucks, and 18 miscellaneous
trucks. An average of 1,186 workers have been employed. In this year's
construction some 210,000 bags of cement will be used.

The prospective plan points up the necessity of building 1,300 kilometers
of dirt roads and several access ways. For the 1968 phase, 700 kilometers
of dirt roads are needed. Sixty kilometers of roads are now under
construction. These are broken down as follows; Guamo-Puente Guillen, 11
kilometers; Jucarito-Punte Guillen, 11.3; Gamboa-Puente Guillen, 5.1;
Gamboa-Cenenterio, 7.4; Apeadero-Cauto-El Paso, 9.5;
Cayamas-Pista-Enchenique, 8.2; Carretera-Pista, 3; and (?Pueblo
Nuevo)-Echenique. Pastor, 4.8. The equipment used in road building work
included 18 buldozers, 11 power graders, eight loaders, 8 rollers, 76 dump
trucks, and seven miscellaneous trucks.

A high-voltage transmission line will be nearly 70 kilometers long and will
have three substations supplying 14,000 kilowatts-.that is as much power as
is used for Bayano, Manzanillo, and Guantanano put together. The power grid
will electrify the Cauto River intake project, Other pumping stations,
drainage projects, and Town twelve-and-a-half. [applause]

Organization, Machinery, Power

When the plan began, management methods were inefficient and incapable of
achieving goals within the prescribed time. This situation was overcome
when the party leadership in Oriente Province defined it as a single plan,
and unity of action was called for. Consequently, a command post was set
up--under the National Agrarian Reform Institute (INRA) as the producing
agency, with the Participation of the National Water Resources Institute
(INRH), the Construction Ministry (MICONs) and so forth--which directs and
controls all activities. It undertakes periodical checks to assure-that
necessary steps are taken to guarantee solutions to problems and eliminate
deficiencies. When the method was applied, better results Were noted
immediately. Notable progress was achieved in All plan facets, and the
planned aims in the first phase were attained.

Hence, we shall continue using this method. Total machinery and equipment
used in the first phase included 160 buldozers, 39 cranes, 32 power
graders, 25 motorscrapers, 16 tractor-drawn scrapers, 12 loaders, 11
rollers, 208 bump trucks, and 127 other trunks, 43 caterpillar tractors, 43
C-154, 40/CD-6/ [presumably a tractor], 17 of other makes, and 203
rubber-tired tractors. A total of 949 pieces of equipment have been and are
still being used in this plan day and night for the past several months.

We think that these figures can give you some idea of the huge effort that
has to be made if we want to overcome the shortages, create the food base,
and fully satisfy all this country's needs. And this equipment--almost
1,000 units--has been acquired piece by piece unloaded from ships, and
transported. The operators have been trained to maintain them, as have the
shop mechanics. In short, it took all kinds of effort to put this huge
number of machines into production.

It is important to emphasize that in spite of the immensity of this effort,
it is similar to the effort being made today in many areas of the nation,
although we can certainly say that in this Cauto River area, the changes
noted and the dynamics of the effort have been really extraordinary. It is
interestion to see how the towns are now under construction at the same
time as the electrical transmission lines, and how this will mean an
extraordinary change in the lives of the residents of this area--one of the
youngest and most forsaken in Cuba. It is possible that many of those
present here never could have imagined that such an imposing array of
machinery and organized men could have entered this area and transformed it
in such a brief interval and at such speed. It is highly satisfying to know
also that the electricity to be consumed in these electric turbines comes
from the Rente thermoelectric station built by the revolution [applause],
so that those who wonder about the importance of the basic industries the
revolution is building cam see how thermoelectric plants are not entirely
for lighting streets, parks, and houses.

To bring electricity from Santiago de Cuba to this Point--electricity
generated in a modern thermoelectric plant--means to have available power
rapidly, instantly carried more than 100 kilometers. Installing electric
engines for irrigation is to install more reliable and more easily
maintained motors, which can endure indefinitely if they are well operated
and kept in condition. This is unlike diesel engines, which must be used
when electricity is unavailable. These motors do not require trucks to
incessantly haul fuel, tanks for fuel storage, men moving over highways
until the fuel arrives for the purpose of generating electric power; that
power is instantly transformed and turns the engines, which distribute
water that Produces abundant and sure harvests.

This electricity serves not only for Production, not only for motors,
shops, and electric furnaces, but also to satisfy the needs of families,
schools, warehouses, refrigerated warehouses, and the machines to be used
after the harvest, such as the work in the drying plants in rice hulling.
Here, to successively develop the power of a country, means Precisely to
develop those basic industries that make available the marvelous energy
that moves the critical machines of the entire process. This station we are
viewing today is undoubtedly the most modern of this type constructed in
Cuba. Its pumping capacity, as Guillen said earlier, is greater than all
the existing aqueducts, numbering 12 machines, 12 engines capable of
Pumping the Cauto River. This dam was designed by a group of Soviet and
Cuban engineers. It has (Anceta) construction equipment, which was
assembled here with the help of two French engineers. This station has a
very modern control center where 12 Persons, doing relatively simple work,
will make the 12 pumps function by means of electronic panels. This proves
to you how work is changing in nature, keeping face with the developing
economy and technical advances in our country.

Ditches used to be dug with a pick and shovel. How many meters of drainage
ditch could a man dig in 1 day? We remember when we were boys in the
countryside. There was a little old man who dug ditches, and Comparing him
with what a CTC tractor with ditcher can do, we compute that in 10 days it
dug more than he did in his lifetime. We mentioned 904 machines. They are
904 machines manned by men doing work which no longer resembles that of
past days--of that hard manual labor 0f low efficiency--900 machines with a
productivity by which their operators can do the equivalent work of tens of
thousands of men.

This will enable the workers to do the work of perhaps 50,000, 80,000 or
100,000 depending on the task and the equipment available. This will
increase work productivity enormously and also change working conditions,
We will no longer have a man watering with a hose to save the crop from a
drought. These are machines operated by 12 men working in the shade in
front of electronic panels, assuring a crop of more than 1,000 Caballerias
of rice. Rice is a crop which really needs a lot of water. If they were
installed in canegrowing areas, these same machines could pump sufficient
water to irrigate from 3,000 to 4,000 caballerias of cane. Naturally, here
we are building long channels which, carrying water from the Contramaestre
and Cauto Rivers, will reach the vicinity of Camaguey. When the Canasta Dam
and other dams are built, then it will even be possible to carry the water
beyond the borders of Oriente and Camaguey Provinces.

Water Control

Oriente has mountains which lend themselves to the construction of dams to
collect water from the high places. This central Oriente Province valley is
especially rich in water, A diversion channel, the Gran Canal will almost
carry the water by gravity. These waters, that flooded vast areas and which
will be collected in a dam, can flow by gravity as far as Camaguey
Province. Here, we are forced to pump it because we have to raise it from a
lower level, but much of the water from the irrigation and channel systems
under construction will not even need this pumping machinery because the
water will flow by gravity. The equipment will only be needed in the fields
for distribution purposes, if we take into account the ambitious
project--or the ambitious hydraulic projects--under construction, projects
which are an essential need in our country.

It is not that little rain falls on our country but that it falls at the
wrong time. At times, 5 inches falls in several hours. On the other hand, 2
months may pass without even a drizzle. In this very province there are
areas, such as the Guantanamo area, where we have almost lost track of the
time during which no rain has fallen. Naturally, we must say this year
began even drier than the previous one, because during the first few months
of January, February, March, and April, it rained less than in 1967 in Las
Villas, Camaguey and Oriente. However, these provinces are evidently
reaching the end of the drought. In May, we have had very good rains and
the climate offers wonderful prospects for our country. Nevertheless,
Santiago de Cuba and Guantanamo are something else. I understand that in
Santiago there was a light drizzle 2 or 3 days ago. I do not know if there
was some rain yesterday in that area. In Guantanamo, in some areas, not a
single drop of rain has fallen.

You know that any crop or many crops are lost if it does not rain for 2
months. Vegetables, corn, and cane suffer extensively. To sum up, there are
no guaranteed crops in our country without the benefit of irrigation. A lot
of rain falls, but irregularly--too much in some months; none at all in
other months. Our irrigation systems are intended to distribute water
during the entire year, collecting the rain so it can be used during the
months when no rain falls.

This will give us an extraordinarily assured agriculture. As I told you,
more than one-half of the tillable area [is assured]. In other words, we
aspire within a 5-year period to irrigate more than 300,000 caballerias of
land. [Unreadable text]

This year, sufficient equipment to move 60 million cubic meters of earth
per year has been assigned. With this equipment, we will be able to build a
large number of reservoirs and irrigation and drainage ditches. Sometimes
ditches are used to carry water and other times to drain excess water.
Consequently, with that construction capability, we will be able to begin
construction on nine dams in Oriente Province in November and to construct
simultaneously [words indistinct] besides our dams.

In addition to digging wells to perforate the subterranean basins, we
hope--with a view toward the 1970 sugarcane harvest--to irrigate more than
25,000 caballerias of cane. [applause] For that reason, we agree with the
sign which we saw around here which said, "With or without drought, we will
have a 10-million-ton sugarcane harvest." [applause] Ten million tons will
be produced because all necessary measures are being taken to guarantee a
10-million-ton harvest, even with a dry or an extremely dry year like last
year, by planting additional trees and by increasing fertilization, fields,
drainage ditches and, above all, irrigation. The honor of the revolution is
involved in this 10-million-ton corps and so is the dignity of our people.
[applause]

Sugarcane Harvest

Some of the enemies of our revolution, without justification, are stating
that Cuba has returned to Havana. No, Cuba is developing cane, but not only
cane. the fact is that in the last few months this plan has been carried
out simultaneously with a program to sow 25,000 caballerias more
sugarcane--more than double the amount ever sowed in 1 year. The fact that
extensive plans for coffee, citrus, and various other fruit trees are being
executed in Los Bosques and in more than half-a-dozen important
agricultural undertaking indicates that our country is not advancing toward
monoculivation but, on the contrary, toward diversification.

Though cane has constituted over 50 percent of the farming output in the
country, in 1975 it will be only 25 percent of our farming output.
Naturally can is increasing, but cattleraising, citrus, coffee, and rice
are growing even more. There are new products which we never had, such as
tomatoes, and produces which barely existed, such as cotton. Production of
tobacco is being increased. Big plan for other foodstuffs and vegetables
are also in progress.

The fact that we speak of a 10-million-ton cane harvest had made the naive
think we are heading toward monocultivation, but it is not that cane is
bad. Cane is very good, one of our best products, since it produces
sugar--one of the best energy-giving elements that exist. It produces food
for cattle, as it has done this year because of the drought, when some 50
million arrobas of cane were used to produce whole molasses. By the same
token, we already have a plant that converts molasses into [word
indistinct] and also produces roughage.

In other words, cane is our corn, a prize plant of the tropics which can
absorb more solar energy than any other plant on earth. It would be
sufficient to say that a tract of land of 100,000 arrobas--which as you
know is easily obtained with irrigation, and without it in a good-rain year
with good cultivation and fertilization--produces five times the nutrients
of an average tract of corn in the United States. The United States obtains
the highest yield of corn, yet the nutrients a tract of cane produces in a
year are five times that of corn. Cane is a very valuable tropical product
to us. It gives us sugar, molasses as a byproduct; and bagasse, which we
use today for fuel, but which in the future we will put to more valuable
use as pulp for paper, which is needed in increasing amounts, and other
products.

A country which has done away with illiteracy, where every child has a
school, where everyone studies, will have increasing need for books,
papers, and notebooks. There is a need for paper and cardboard to wrap the
ever-increasing number of products. In a byproduct of cane, bagasse, we
have the raw material for tremendous production of pulp for paper. Pulp is
a raw material for which the world demand is increasing due to the
disappearance of forests. It is harder and harder to produce. In a dry year
like this one, cane has helped feed and sustain cattle to a considerable
degree. Yet we will produce all the cane we want.

We will reach the 10-million-ton figure. The expanding of our production of
all farm products will cause the percentage value of all that cane, which
(?should) constitute over 50 percent of our farm production, to drop to 25
percent in 1975 and possible (?20) percent in 1980.

When those vast areas of pasturage which we are developing; when cattle of
incomparably better quality, extraordinarily greater in number and more
productive, are in full production; when the 20,000 caballerias of citrus
trees are bearing; and when (?Tasor), pineapple and many other planting
have reached the goals we have set, then cane will be reduced to less than
20 percent. In other words, we produce much more cane, but at the same time
greatly increase other products so our farming will not depend on just one
product. It will make our agriculture cease being monocultivation and keep
us from depending on only one product.

Labor Efficiency

For a number of reasons, it will also help in the distribution of labor.
Not only that, but having our farming with vast areas under irrigation will
allow us to plant and cultivate the year around. And why? Because now in
the dry months, all we can do is plow and plant nothing. We are plowing 4
or 5 months, and when the rains come, the harvest is not yet ended. There
(?is still much) cane to be cut. Then everyone scurries around to end the
harvest, to plant new cane shoots, to weed the fields, and to plant other
products.

The importance of irrigation is not just guaranteeing and insuring the
harvests, nor guaranteeing high production during droughts, but rather that
it allows better use of mechanical and human resources, for men can program
their planting the year around. Then they will not have to complete
everything in 1 month whenever the rain falls. They will not have to cut
the weeds, to plant all the hills [words indistinct], which requires
months, to cut whatever cane remains standing, and to strip all the cane
that had been cut. Just estimate what this means in a given province like
Oriente with 30,000 caballerias of cane!

Irrigation and machines will free man from the hoe, just as ditch-digging
machines freed him from the pick, and pitchfork, and the shovel, and as the
canecutting machines that were so successfully tested in Oriente Province
will free man from the very hard work of cutting cane. When the revolution,
by means of mechanization, has freed hundreds of thousands of workers from
such arduous labor in the heat of our climate, then the revolution will
have accomplished not only one of the major economic tasks, but also one of
the most important human and social tasks--saving man from this kind of
work. [applause] As you know, the technical aspects of those machines have
been resolved, and we expect a large number of them to work in the
10-million-ton harvest.

There is one more point: Those machines have not only cut 50,000 (?stalks
of) cane, but 100,000 and 140,000. The machines have not only cut upright
cane, but have also successfully cut the well-known 43-231 or 42-231, a
cane planted in dry areas that grows laying flat. The cane is difficult and
hard, as it dulls the machetes. Well then, the famed little machines tacked
the 42-231 canefields and successfully cut it. No one had imagined how a
machine could cut that cane, for everyone who has cut it knows it gets
tangled. It is almost impossible to find under the leaves or other stalks.
Nevertheless, a machine appeared--the invention of man. Man's intelligence
found the means and mechanisms for raising that cane, chopping it
perfectly, cleaning it, and tossing it on the carts. How many things a
machine does, and how much work it saves the people!

In a word, this vast program will allow work to be done the year around. We
will have a highly diversified agriculture--highly developed, highly
mechanized, and highly technical--taking advantage of a geographic area
where the sun shines the whole year. If there is sun, water, and
fertilizer, anything can grow here all year. Then the tropics become no
obstacle to man, for when man dominates it, this area becomes his
magnificent ally. Naturally we will have to work a lot during these years.
Naturally we will have to spend a lot to buy all this equipment and these
machines. We realize how many things we are short of. We know all too well
how many things our men and women would like to enjoy.

However, the fact is that we will have to invest the resources in the most
essential things--the most essential foodstuffs and the medicines. Also, we
will have to invest a large part in acquiring the machines, as they alone
will insure abundance for tomorrow. It would be thoughtless, it would be
worthless, for us to have a few added luxuries now, if tomorrow we would
have too do without the more-than-plenty that these machines and hard work
will make possible.

Program Financing

Our country is developing trade with many countries while doing its
farming. There are countries and people that are located in freezing or
cold climate zones, where many valuable tropical products cannot be
cultivated. this is why we have developed our trading policy and why we can
supply those countries.

We have the case of the German Democratic Republic. Our delegation, a Cuban
delegation headed by Carlos Rafael Rodriguez, recently visited that
country. One of the purposes was to buy irrigation pumps, hydraulic motors,
hydraulic pumps, and deep-well pumps. In talks with the GDR
representatives, the delegation concluded an agreement with that country
whereby it granted us, under advantageous conditions, a 20-million-peso
loan to acquire hydraulic equipment and a 15-million-peso loan for
construction equipment. You realize our tremendous need for irrigation
equipment. These machines, for instance, cost half-a-million pesos.

However, how many of these machines do we need to carry out our irrigation
plans? The GDR manufacturers excellent irrigation motors. Through this
agreement, we will have 20 such heavy-duty motors through a credit that is
payable over a number of years--I do not remember exactly how many years--6
years, I believe. But one important thing is that basically we will pay for
these machines with citrus fruit, coffee, pineapple, and bananas--tropical
fruits such as we are developing. [applause] Thus we have splendid
possibilities of economic cooperation with many countries.

It is well-known that the Yankee imperialists have tried by all means to
blockade the German Democratic Republic, the same way they have tried by
all means to blockade our country. But what the imperialists cannot prevent
is the close economic cooperation to be established by the countries
affected by their blockade.

Today, a GDR delegation is here with us attending this ceremony. [applause]
It is headed by a first deputy minister of foreign trade, and is made up of
several members. This is the delegation of the GDR for economic and
scientific cooperation with Cuba. Its members have been touring the country
and have honored us by their presence today, despite the tremendous heat
and the fact that Germans are not accustomed to the hot sun of our country,
which is now melting all of us anyway. [applause]

I convey to you, friends, our heartfelt recognition and our sincerest
thanks for the work you have done here in the Bayano and Salado Divide,
[word indistinct] and gathering lumber, preparing the forms, Preparing the
fields and planting, and for all your work. We also sincerely recognize the
technicians who have helped us, and sincerely congratulate the comrades who
are directing this plan, the directors of our party in Oriente Province,
and our old comrade and guerrilla--the first among the peasants of Sierra
Maestra--Maj Guillermo Garcia, [applause] whose working spirit,
responsibility, capacity for leadership and organization were developed in
this province. Let us continue down this path. Let new thousands of
caballerias be incorporated into the production of rice in this province,
and let new hundreds of millions of cubic meters be incorporated into our
hydraulic systems.

This is genuine "revolution." his is what a revolution means. This is what
waging a revolution means. Fatherland or death, we will win!
-END-


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