-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-