Latin American Network Information Center - LANIC

-DATE-
19890526
-YEAR-
1989
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
SPEECH
-AUTHOR-
F.CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
INAUGURATION-EL MIRADOR CATTLE BREEDING COMMUNIT
-PLACE-
ARTEMISA MUNICIPALITY, HAVANA PROVINCE
-SOURCE-
HAVANA DOMESTIC RADIO
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19890602
-TEXT-
Castro at El Mirador Community Inauguration

FL3005151389 Havana Domestic Radio and Television Services in Spanish 2211
GMT 26 May 89

[Speech by President Fidel Castro at the inauguration of the El Mirador
Cattle Breeding Community on 26 May in Artemisa Municipality, Havana
Province--live]

[Text] Comrades, guests, workers of the Los Naranjos Genetic Engineering
Center [rephrases] of the Genetic Enterprise.  As it says here, today we
mark the 25th anniversary of the founding of this enterprise.  I think this
is a noteworthy ceremony, as well as an acknowledgement to the workers and
the leadership of this center.  I think that Los Naranjos is a development
model of socialist agriculture, of what socialism can do, and of what, with
difficulty--or better yet--of what could never have been done under a
capitalist system.  Despite the highs and lows in the country's overall
work, despite errors, I think we have good proof here of what can be
achieved if we work with the correct criteria.

This enterprise began as an old capitalist cattle processing center to
which some adjustments and expansions were made.  I know its history very
well.  From the early days of the agrarian reform, I was able to visit this
enterprise as it was being formed.  I do not know if it was said here the
enterprise originally had 164 hectares.  Prior to 1964, work was already
being done here.  However, it was actually in 1964 that this became a
genetic center with approximately 160 hectares.  Today, as has been said,
it has 164 cattle processing centers [as heard], and it has a land
extension of over 40,000 hectares.

The history of this enterprise would have to be described in two phases.
The first phase, very recently, was when the enterprise developed into the
area near the Caimito Municipality, toward the south of Havana, Ceiba, and
finally near to the southwest area of Artemisa.  The second phase of this
enterprise occurred when, because of its efficiency and good work, the
enterprise that used to be located where we are now was annexed to it.  I
do now know what it was called back them--the Artemisa enterprise.  It was
located in a flat area, where in the early years some dairies had also been
built, and all these hills and valleys similar in altitude to where we are
now. [sentence as heard]  That is why, naturally, at a certain point, the
number of hectares, cattle, and milk production increased.

This enterprises' milk production increased as soon as it was added to the
Los Naranjos plan. This Artemisa enterprise was not operating very well,
but it began developing with a thrust when it was joined to Los Naranjos.
Because of the plan used in this cattle area and the good experience we had
in Los Naranjos, today it is a great enterprise.  Although this part of the
enterprise is not less developed, it is under a full development process.
The enterprise has greatly changed in the last 2 or 3 years.  Weeds are no
longer seen anywhere.  All you see are hills, everything has been cleared,
pastures everywhere.  Many facilities have been built, including this
community which corresponds to the new area that was added to the
enterprise.  I say this so it does not seem like the Los Naranjos
development is disproportionate.  Lose Naranjos does not produce 360,000
liters of milk but rather 57 million litters of milk, which will be this
year's production.  However, in the old enterprise, in the original area,
over 40 million liters of milk are currently produced.  Note, I will not
make the comparison between 360,000 and 57 million liters.  I will compare
360,000 liters to 41 million, which was the amount that production
increased when the enterprise was founded.  It was added to this which has
already increased from 12 million to 16 million in the last 3 years.
[sentence as heard] That is why I say that without adding what the new area
produces, in these 25 years, the milk production of Los Naranjos enterprise
has increased by 120 times, approximately.  It is incredible.

Do not think that the area where the enterprise was founded was a rich land
in a vegetation area, with many natural resources.  The greatest merit of
Los Naranjos enterprise, the old part of Los Naranjos, is that it was
developed on the worst land of Havana Province.  The best land of all that
area, approximately 500 caballerias of land, was given to the citrus
enterprise--the most fertile, richest soil.  Los Naranjos got the most
superficial, rocky, and less rich land, with the exception of a few
patches of good land.  Overall, it was extremely poor quality land.  This
enterprise was developed by building up the land over a period of 25 years.
A number of trucks and some bulldozers have been piling up rock and taking
it away.  For several years, a lot of soil has been brought in.  For
example, all the soil that could be retrieved from the construction of a
highway, a dam--little land mines [as heard], you could say--was
transported.  As the land was practically smoothed out--by removing the
large stones, or by breaking the protruding parts of the rocks--a 15- or
20-centimeter vegetation layer was formed.  That is how over 400
caballerias of land--built up, created land--were added to that area during
these years.

This is the same process that would probably take thousands of years.  If a
pasture is grown over that layer and the cattle use it, the organic
material gradually enriches the small vegetation layers that was built over
the rocky soil.  There are still land extensions to be built up.  This
enterprise got the land in the Dagame, to the southwest of the province,
the environs of Alquizar, which is pure rocky soil--pure rock.  However,
new soil has been built up in that area, and continues being built up.  I
would say the main merit of this enterprise is that it was created over the
worst agricultural soil that one could imagine.  Those areas increased
their production in 25 years; neither milk nor practically anything else
was produced there.  There were a few farmers scattered.  It was necessary
to renegotiate with them, with those who wanted to do so.  We had to
acquire or rent the land.  There are still some farmers who remained and
whose wishes we respect.  They wish to remain on their land, on poor land
that no farmer could individually turn into fertile land.  A task of that
nature could only be undertaken by the state, with the resources that it is
capable of mobilizing.  It would be too much to say that the farmers in
that area independently could produce more than a million liters of milk,
at the most.

That is how those areas today produce over 40 million liters of milk for
the nutrition of our people, our children.  I am talking about the old
area, the old Los Naranjos enterprise to which the area of Artemisa was
later added.  The Artemisa area is already being greatly transformed,
although it is simpler task.  We do not have to build up the land here, as
we had to do in Regla.  There is soil here.  There are slopes, hills.  It
is an original area; however, it is being exploited despite its topography.

The work of the Los Naranjos was not only for dairy production. Los
Naranjos was started as a genetic enterprise.  It had bulls for reduction,
insemination and had a high genetic-dairy potential. The first cows,
naturally, were imported.  They were a selected breed from Canada and with
pre-registered production.  In the early years, a few thousand of these
cows were bought for this plan as well as for other plans.  This was not
the only plan that the Revolution had undertaken.  That is how the center
was founded, with the imported animals.  They continued reproducing.  This
enterprise has provided for the insemination centers of the country the
great majority of the bulls that are used in reproduction.  There is
probably not a single cattle enterprise in the country that does not have
female descendants of the bulls born in this center.  The center is
providing a high quality service to the country for the improvement of our
cattle.

At the beginning, the center limited itself to using Holstein, then it
researched the use of other breeds--the local breed, the Brown Swiss, and
other breeds.   Other breeds looked into were the F1, F2, 5/8 [as heard]
with other crossbreeds such as the Zebu-Holstein, or the local breed
And-Holstein, or other breeds with Holstein.  Afterward, some work was done
with meat animals, some of which had a double purpose.  They were crossbred
with the (Limousine) to create a new (Limousine) local breed.  For many
years, work was done with a herd of Charolais.  Later, serious and
systematic studies were done on the possibility of producing meat from the
milk cattle.  This is how crossbreeding began with all the beef cattle
known.  Holstein was crossbred with all the beef cattle--Holstein with
Charolais, Aberdeen, Zebu, Santa Gertrudis, and finally with 5 to 10
different beef cattle to see what the best product, hybrid would be. This
is where we have been able to show the quality of a Charolais-Holstein
hybrid, a Santa Gertrudis-Holstein hybrid, or a (Limousine)-Holstein
hybrid.  We have also seen the quality of a Zebu-Holstein hybrid which,
out of all, has turned out to be the most outstanding because of its growth
and conversion.  This proves the possibility of producing beef from milk
cattle.  For example, if you have 100 Holstein, and you no longer want the
milk cattle to increase, you could inseminate 40 percent of it with
Holstein to replace the milk cattle.  Then the remaining 60 percent could
be inseminated with any of these breeds, such as the Zebu.  You will have a
product which, female or male, he result will be excellent beef cattle.  Of
course, if we continue expanding the milk cattle, it would be better to
produce F1 for milk production, or pure Holstein to expand the pure
Holstein breed.  That is what we have been doing.   However, some day when
the country already has the necessary number of milk cattle for the
required milk production, it will also be able to produce excellent quality
beef.  The production would be from those crossbreeds that have been under
study for many years in this genetic enterprise, and whose results are
fully annotated and filed for the time when the country needs to apply
these techniques.

Therefore, the center worked on a study to come up with the best plan for
the production of beef, and not only milk.  In this center, we have worked
on the development of the Red Holstein.  They are selected, because a
certain number of that breed, due to their recessive characteristics are
red, are white and red, instead of black and white.  We have tested and
measured the production and milk of those animals in comparison to the
black and white Holstein.  We also tested their fertility and other
variables.  We have worked on development of the Tropical Holstein breed.
What is the Tropical Holstein?  It is a breed that is selected from the
offspring of those cows that, in our climate, are capable of producing more
milk, fat, and protein.  In a breed, each animal has its characteristics.
Some are less tolerant to heat, others are more tolerance.  We have been
selecting those which are more tolerance.  The tolerance is evident in
their behavior and milk production.  Therefore, from those imported breeds
and through selection, we have been developing breeds of milk cattle that
are adapted to a tropical climate.

The Los Naranjos genetic enterprise became the place that was chosen
whenever any kind genetic testing needed to be done.  If we wanted to
introduce new breeds of animals, like we have been doing, we would choose
Los Naranjos.  That is how we brought from other countries other kinds of
disease-free cattle--free from diseases we do not have here.  Aberdeen and
different types of cattle were brought, as well as... [asks question to
unidentified person] What is that breed called, the one we have in the
south? [someone responds;  Semental] Semental and other breeds whose names
I do not remember very well right now.  We have brought, adapted, and
multiplied here meat cattle with excellent results.  Therefore, this
enterprise is one that has the greatest variety of animal and meat cattle
breeds for genetic development.

When it was decided to bring to the country the water buffalo....[does not
complete sentence] Do not get confused.  Many people called the zebu a
buffalo; but the zebu is the zebu.  It is the one that has the hump.  The
men and workers who work with cattle know the difference very well.  The
zebu [as heard] is another species, not even another breed of the milk
cattle.  It is not possible to crossbreed it as you can the zebu and many
other animals, breeds.  As a matter of fact, this small wooden statue is
that of a water buffalo which was introduced to the country 5 or 6 years
ago.  We started out with a few dozen of them, and today we have over
10,000 over 3,000 [corrects himself], excuse me.  We will have 10,000.
Not only that, but from here, small herds have been taken to several
provinces.  We could say they have been taken to most of the provinces of
the country.  It is a new species which has the characteristic of having a
high tolerance to heat.  It is more resistant than the zebu.  It resists
heat, humidity,and it can develop very well in the low areas.  It can
produce meat and very high quality milk, to the extent that some famous
cheese brands in the world are produced from the water buffalo milk.  The
introduction of this breed in our country is already a reality.  This
enterprise already has a growing water buffalo production.

Los Naranjos was also chosen when it was decided to develop the production
of bovine cattle and goat production, by crossbreeding the local breeds
with imported breeds that have a higher meat yield.  Therefore, today the
Los Naranjos has thousands of bovine breeds that are the offspring of the
local breeds--I think they are called Bull's Hail [Pelo de Buey]--crossbred
with other imported breeds.  Some of the work that is being done is to
assess the fertility of the breeds, the number of births per female per
year.  Los Naranjos was also chosen when it was decided to develop the
production of goat milk for industrial use.  Now the enterprise has
thousands of goat for milk.  Therefore, throughout the years, the work has
become more refined, complex, and varied.  We can say that this is a dairy
center with a great genetic potential.

It is difficult to find another enterprise in the world with the genetic
potential like the one Los Naranjos has.  Overall, Los Naranjos is an
enterprise that is admired by foreign visitors who tour the rural areas of
our country.  So, as you can see, milk is almost a sub-product of the
genetic work done in Los Naranjos.  The herds of meat cattle and bovine
cattle will reproduce in this area by the tens of thousands of heads.

This enterprise was always considered an integral development program which
included all the possible irrigation areas, all the dams the land's
topography would allow, underground (?water), and larger water-volume dams.
It was envisioned with its electricity, all the necessary highways and
roads.  As it was said here, over 100 km of road are still necessary.  They
are the necessary communications links to guarantee the production and
social development of the region.  These are the characteristics of the
land in which this enterprise was developed and where it work was carried
out during these years.  We did not forget the population.  From the very
beginning there were plans for one town, near the embryo of the enterprise,
as well as for a second and a third town in the new areas that were
developing to the south and southwest of Havana.  Finally, there were plans
for this new area where the fourth town was build.  Unfortunately, the
enterprise suffered the consequences of those years when the technocrats
did so much damage to the development of the country.  They did so much to
paralyze the plans that they could not understand with their hollow
minds--full of theories, lacking common sense and true revolutionary
concepts--how socialism should be built and how the country should be
developed.  The construction of cattle processing and breeding centers
remained in the hands of the enterprise.  That is why it continues
developing.  However,the housing construction remained in the hands of the
MICONS [Ministry of Construction], and things simply became prolonged, just
like everything else did; and nothing ever got finished.

That is why I think that even though there has been attention to social
matters, there are only approximately 600 houses for this enterprise.  It
we had worked at the same rate today that we had in the beginning, we would
have twice, or two and a half times more the number of houses we now have.
For an enterprise this size, it would not be unusual to have 1,200, or
1,300, or more houses, as the enterprise grows.  This town was created and
built by the enterprise.  There is not a MICONS construction organization
(?here).  The MICONS is working in other areas, on different kinds of
buildings, and I hope that housing construction gains momentum.  This town
should have over 400 houses.  It already has 150, and 80 are under
construction.  I was asking Comrade Pepe, the director of this enterprise,
what was needed to build 100 or 120 houses per year.  This way, in 2 and
1/2 years at the most, this town of El Mirador can be finished--a town
which is such a pretty, pleasant place, (?it has) the dominant altitude in
this region.  It can become a model community under construction.  An
elementary school is also under construction, all the social installations
will also be built, because this is far from becoming a ghost town.

I hope that in our country's future, we never again have ghost towns like
those in which, because of a lack of a comprehensive vision, the houses
were built but not the streets, nor the child care centers, the schools,
the commercial networks, the aqueducts, or the [words indistinct], or
anything at all.  Everything was nonsense, a result of those inventions to
which I was referring.  For example, it would be a greater feat to build a
child care center than to put a puzzle together--it was complicated.

If you have to build a child care center, the municipality had to contract
one enterprise for the elevators, another for the construction, another for
the furniture, and another one for the kitchen.  It was all nonsense.
Today, when these communities are turned over to the people, they are
complete.   The enterprise has the resources to do it all.  That is why I
think there has been a certain amount of delay in the housing development.
[sentence as heard] However, we are determined to build the necessary
houses in the coming years.

I was telling you earlier that this was not the only project which the
Revolution undertook.  There is still a larger project that this
one--Genetics of the East.  It is also a huge genetics plant.  It was
created after the experience we had acquired from developments in Los
Naranjos.  That is how several good quality enterprises were established in
Havana Province.  They are not in the same quality nor prospects as the
Los Naranjos; nevertheless, they are very good enterprises based on the
experience from Los Naranjos.

Therefore, the province has approximately 1,000 cattle processing centers,
Of those 1,000, Los Naranjos has approximately 174.  That is to say that
Los Naranjos produces less [rephrases] Los Naranjos has less than 20
percent of the cattle processing centers Havana Province has, whose
production at certain times of the year is almost a million liters of milk
daily.  Thanks to those projects that were begun almost simultaneously with
this one, Havana Province's milk production grew approximately five times.
It can be said that today the Los Narajos enterprise, which is not the
largest--the largest is Genetics of the East--produces, let's say, a little
over 20 percent the amount of milk produced by the province.  It also
produces almost as much milk as Havana used to produce when these projects
were started.

Naturally, the province does not have much more land.  I asked Comrade
Lemus how much available land there is for cattle processing centers.  In
Havana Province, only 50 more of these processing centers can be built.
Therefore, the increase of milk production in the province, for now, has to
be based on a better genetic selection of the animals, and on the better
feeding of the animals.  We must look ahead for an increase in agricultural
work and increases in greater yield per cow.  The [words indistinct] growth
has been supported by two things:  new cattle processing centers, and
greater yield of milk per cow.  Since we will not be able to have more
processing centers, aside from the number I have mentioned, the increase of
milk will essentially have to be based on a greater milk yield per cow.  I
think we have an important path to travel, and it's success will depend
greatly on the possibilities of the country and the technical innovations
we are carrying out to produce animal feed from sugarcane.

There are several plans.  How many plans for dairies do we currently have?
[turns to unidentified person] Eight? [indistinct response] No, I mean
dairies.  Nine dairy enterprises which have been developed in various
regions to meet the production requirements.  Anyone will understand that a
plan like this one would have been completely impossible under
capitalism--with the land divided among many owners, latifundia owners,
average- or small-sized agricultural workers, each one of whom could do
whatever they wanted with the land.  Could they have recovered those
thousands of hectares of land, of rocky soil?  How could communities like
this one--social life--have been developed?  How could so many cattle
processing centers have been built?  How could a genetic plan of the same
quality that has been developed here have been developed?  How could so
many dams, mini-dams, irrigation systems, and communications, and
everything that has been done here have been built?  However, our socialism
is a combination of concepts.  I think we have applied some new concepts
here.  We cannot generalize; it depends on the region.  When an enterprise
is powerful like this one, it is able to build processing centers, and it
built them when it was even less powerful than now.  It can build houses,
as shown by this community we are inaugurating today.

Maybe, even more important than the history of Los Naranjos are the ideas
of what we are already doing in other regions of the country.  In the past,
we did not only work in Havana.  We worked in Matanzas.  There, we also
created a very important plant for high productivity like a [word
indistinct].  A plan was drawn in the Manicaragua Zone in Villa Clara;
plans were drawn up in Camaguey, and Santiago de Cuba.

It must be said that, back in those years, a small technical development, a
small experiment in dairies, seemed like some sort of unequal development,
because we have an inferior capacity for the development of the dairy
plans.  Of course, I must recall that back in those years, when we started
out, there was not a single engineer, a single university-graduate
technician, and today there are over 100. The test of the country also did
not have a single engineer, or university-graduate technicians, and today
in any of the large cattle projects there are tens of university-graduate
technicians.

As I was saying, the most important thing we have done in Havana Province,
and that has been done here, is what we are already doing in other
provinces.  Based on the experience we have accumulated throughout these
years, we are carrying out important dairy development programs.  It must
be said that in the country--during the years to which I was referring, and
which are staying behind as a result of the process of rectification--the
construction of dams was paralyzed as well as the construction of
highways, schools, cattle processing centers, and houses.  That is why it
became necessary to actively rectify that whole process and to regain out
ability to get things done and develop the country.  As can be seen by the
minibrigades in Havana City, they were able to noticeably increase the
construction of not only houses, but also the construction of social
projects such as child care centers.  One of the 5 projects for the 5-year
plant was the construction of 100 child care centers.  However, to satisfy
the need for child care centers that existed in 1987, they would have
needed 100 years to satisfy that need, without counting other projects
built during those 100 years.   One child care center per year was being
built.  However, the minibrigades have built 110 child care centers in 2
years in the capital.  That is the rate at which we are working in the rest
of the country's provinces.  We have regained out ability to give momentum
to our country, to develop it.  All we are lacking now are the people,
materials, and the desire to do the work.  We do not ask how much money is
needed, but rather we ask how many people we have, because it is the labor
of men that we have out wealth.  How much material do we have in order to
do what we are doing today?  How much material do we have in order to do
what the men and women of the Blas Roca Contingent are going, to do what is
being done throughout the country today? [applause] [audience chants: Fidel
for sure, hit the Yankees hard.]

Today, we are developing a huge milk plan in Camaguey Province.  We are
carrying out plans for 300 large cattle processing centers.  This year
along, the country plans to build 60 of those processing centers.  It is a
huge plan that will increase Camaguey's milk production to levels similar
to Havana Province's capital.  The production will be close to a million
liters of milk daily.  We have planned to carry out that plan in a period
of approximately 6 years.  An important milk development program was
started, and it gained momentum, in Las Tunas, Ciego de Avila, and Granma.
So, in the last 2 years, four great areas for milk development programs
have been opened.  We are analyzing the possibility of opening another
area, smaller but important, to the southwest of Pinar del Rio.  The other
provinces no longer have any more [words indistinct].  However, we are
analyzing how many more dairies can be built in Matanzas, Cienfuegos,
Villa Clara, Holguin, Santiago de Cuba, and in Guantanamo.  Regarding
Havana, I already referred to the possibility of continuing the
construction of cattle processing centers, up to 50 of them.  We have
planned to build no less than 1,000 of these centers in the next 6 years.
Who can do that?  Only socialism can do that. Only socialism can draw up
plans of that nature, because we are not planning to build only  processing
centers for cattle, but we are also going to develop integral
programs--calf-breeding centers, power networks to take electricity to each
center for the refrigeration of the milk and for the mechanized milking.
The integral programs also include roads, highways, communities where the
workers will live which are towns, towns with streets, aqueducts, child
care centers, schools, commerce, family doctors, etc.  These are integral
programs with all the mini-dams and irrigation systems that will fit in
these regions.  The programs include some innovations such as the
cultivation of earthworms which are used with the cattle manure in these
areas to produce animal-protein flour as well as humus for the soil.  Only
under socialism can a plan of this nature and magnitude be drawn up and
carried out in an organized manner.

That is how the brigades for these programs have been organized in
Camaguey, Las Tunas, Ciego de Avila, and in Granma.  Additionally, the
Sancti Spiritus brigade will be organized during the second half of this
year.  The towns will be turned over to the people with key in hand,
complete with everything.  The agricultural sector is at the same time
weeding the land and planting the best kind of pastures, the king that
adapt the best to these conditions.  This is done while the research
centers work on finding new nutritional formulas, new techniques for
developing cattle feed from sugarcane which is rich in calories and
proteins.  I say that that plan is even more important because it looks to
the future, and it is more motivating.

If it is very motivating to see projects such as this one, and what has
been done during these 25 years--an example of socialist development in
agriculture--it is also very motivating to know that, with the experience
and techniques that have been acquired, we are going to develop important
plans in a relatively short amount of time. [applause]

Naturally, today we are not working only on the development of milk
production, but we are also working very hard in the application of a
technique for sugarcane development based on results of new experiments,
the application of partial drainage and irrigation of the sugarcane fields.
We must apply this technique on 60,000 caballerias of land.  We are
determined to complete it in a few years, no more than 10 years. If
possible, we will not take more than 8 years to apply the technique.  It is
possible it will not take more than 7 years.  Right now we are organizing
the brigades.  We already have 47 brigades and we will have 121 available
by the end of the year. We will have 200 next year.  We are trying to have
300 by the second half of 1991.  These are approximate figures.   When we
have that number of brigades, with equipment built in Cuba, in 6 more
years, starting in 1991, the 60,000 caballerias will already have their
partial drainage.  That system will permit the increase of sugar by over 2
million tons.  Only through partial drainage and irrigation in these areas
will the increase be possible.

Naturally, that sugarcane will not he used only for sugar.  An important
part of it will be for the production of protein-rich animal feed, which
will be used for the production of milk and meat, as well as for poultry,
pork, and rabbit production.  An important part of the increase in
sugarcane production will be used for the production of milk and meat for
our people.  It will not be for export.

We are beginning to do a lot of work in the application of the engineering
system for rice.  We are thinking about applying that engineering system in
the 150,000 hectares used for rice in the country.  In order to do that
task in 6 or 7 years, we will need 30 brigades.  Already by the end of this
year, we will have the first seven.  We will see how many more we can put
together in 1990 and 1991.  Those brigades will also use levelers that are
built in the country.  We have asked the leveler factory in Guiera de
Melena to build no less than 300 levelers by next year.  This year it will
produce almost 300.  I was able to verify it myself in a recent visit I
paid to that center. I can tell you that in addition to the plants for
sugarcane, rice, and the construction of irrigation systems, canals, and
dams, we will add the production of approximately 400 levelers and
motorized levelers, 300 of which are going to be built in the country.  The
other 100 will be brought from the USSR.

Consequently, our mechanized industry is also acquiring a great capacity
for the production of this equipment.   The first tractor [rephrases]
bulldozer is already being built.  The industry is already building loading
machined [cargadores] which have shown to be of very good quality.  They
are made with Cuban engines which are of excellent quality.  All these
developments allow us to give thrust to the effort.

Water conservation is already a reality which we have forgotten about these
past few years.  Today we are currently working on 28 [corrects himself] 29
dams.  By the end of the year, we will begin to build a few more.  There is
a general plan for the construction of excellent canals.  Something that is
very important is that, during the second part of the year, we will have
organized 18 new brigades for the construction of irrigation systems.  We
have (?kept) a factory for the production of (Fregat) systems, because the
ones we imported were not enough.  The factory already has been able to
produce 400 Cuban (Fregat) machines based on the Soviet prototype.  We are
planning to build 400 of them this year.  The 400 machines in conjunction
with the ones the agriculture and sugar industries will receive from the
USSR will total 600 machines of this type.

I have not mentioned the vegetable production plans which are increasing by
7,000 [corrects himself] by almost 6,000 hectares.  Almost 70,000 [figure
as heard] hectares of new land will be used for the production of
vegetables.  The irrigation system will be used on it.  Very efficient
techniques are being used for the irrigation of some crops, such as
plantain.  Irrigation with a plane is a very efficient irrigation system,
it carries the water right next to the [words indistinct].  It can even be
controlled with a computer; it can be made automatic.  There are a few tens
of caballerias in Villa Clara.  This year we are planning to use that
irrigation system in Havana Province on 70 caballerias of bananas, and on
some other areas of the country.  The use of the technique doubles and even
triples the production per hectare.  Therefore, work is gaining momentum.

The vegetable production has been very favorable this year.  This is
because, at lease in the eastern part of Havana Province, there were heavy
rains up until November.  The crop planting schedule was moved back,
because of the heat in the months of February, March and January--these are
climatic phenomena.  Once again we had heavy rains in March and April.
Those rains affected crops, such as tomatoes.  They created the proper
conditions for plagues which affected the potato production, to a certain
extent.  However, we planted many more vergetables than last year.  Right
now, looking ahead at the second half of the year, we can see that we have
plnated vegetable crops in many more areas of Havana Province and in the
rest of the country.  We have also planted several thousands of caballerias
of corn for consumption.  We will not be discouraged by stumbling blocks.
We will continue with the development of new areas, and with the increase
of production per areas.

We are building zeoponics [zeoponico] [corrects himself] hydroponics which
use zeolite as a (?rocky) basis.  We are studying the results.  In the
Caujeri Valley, there is a group of engineers who right now are analyzing,
planting a large number of vegetables, to see the behavior of those crops
in the summer months in those zones of Guantanamo Province.  Caujeri could
turn into a huge hydroponic or zeoponic.  We are working in all those
areas.

We are working very hard in the citrus fruit production, in the expansion
of irrigation, and the expansion of the planting areas.  I will not
mention all the other activities.  However, we continue working hard in
reforestation.  By next year we will begin to reap the fruits.  We will
have some tens of thousands of tons of wood, or cubic meters of wood, which
will be the result of what was planted during the years of the
Revolution.  We are developing the coffee plantations, and other cross in
the mountains through the Turquino plan.

Right now, we are living a peak moment, a moment of thrust in the
development of agriculture because of there plans I have explained to you.
I know that all the agriculture delegates of the country are present here.
I know that all the cattle enterprise chiefs of the country are here.  They
are witnessed to the projects we are talking about. We hope they will be
completely dedicated to the development of these projects which are so
necessary and promising for our country.

I also know that the men and women of Brigade No 9 of the glorious Blas
Roca Calderio Contingent are here.  [applause] The contingent has radically
changed the concept of how socialism must be built, at what pace, with
what intensity, quality, commitment, and punctuality.  [applause] We now
have over 20,000 construction workers throughout the country working with
this style of work.  There are 100,000 [figure as heard] men working like
this.  That is what guarantees many of these plans.  One hundred thousand
men working like that can do the job that would normally take 400,000 men
to do.  In comparison to what used to be done, the contingents do twice the
amount of work with half of the people.  They do triple the work with the
same machines, and they take better care of them, and they have a high
percentage of machines in good condition, and they last longer.

As I was saying, the concept of how socialism should be built was totally
changed in this process of rectification.  This does not mean that all
construction workers are using the new concepts.  However, there is no
doubt that the example of the Blas Roca Contingent, and of the other
contingents, has instilled a great working spirit in the rest of the
construction workers.  It is a pleasure to see that people know that when a
project involves a contingent, it will be a sure thing.  It will be quickly
built and with good quality. [applause]

We have an example right here.  We had finished a dam that had been under
construction for a very long time, and it was finished recently because we
began to speed up the projects.  A Havana Province enterprise finished the
same, but it continued building other dams.  However, there was a road that
[words indistinct].  The dam from the water would cover the road. So, after
the dam was finished last year, it could not take in water, even if it was
to [words indistinct].  We looked at that situation and at the need to
correct that error.  Undoubtedly, it was an error--a lack of coordination.
it was one of those things we were trying to eliminate at any cost, so that
this nonsense would not occur.  We decided to quickly build a road in
[words indistinct].  So we organized Brigade No 9 of Blas Roca Calderio
Contingent with workers from Havana Province, who have proved to be
excellent workers.  They are also a young work force.

In a few months, they built the 10-km road.  All that it needs now is a
bridge, which is a little bit behind schedule because of the lack of
prefabricated materials.  However, they have secured everything so that the
bridge will be finished in a few days.  I can say that the dam...
[addressed unidentified person] What is it called? [someone responds: San
Francisco] Well, not even because it has a saint's name were we able to
close it last year.  [laughter]  This year, now that the road is already
built, we can close the dam, and it has already been closed.  We hope that
the dam will fill up with the rains of this spring.  We hope that it will
provide enough water for the sugarcane, and for the population, cattle. I
think it should take in approximately 40 million [corrects himself]
approximately 50 million cubic meters of water.  We will have irrigated
lands; we will also have fish in that dam.  That was another project that I
did not mention, and that we are promoting very much.  The use of the water
from all the dams for the production of food is another one of the projects
that we are promoting.  Finally, I can see that we have here the happy
residents in this beautiful town.  I am certain that if the capital's
residents were to pay a visit here, they would realize that the people that
live here have absolutely nothing to envy them for.

That is what we should do, and what we are doing, which is to carry out an
integral--economic and social--program for the whole country.  This will
prevent us from having the same phenomenon which occurs in all the capitals
of Third World countries which is that everybody is concentrated in the
capital.  Although we have not been completely immune to that, it has only
occurred to a very low degree.  That is why unhealthy neighborhoods are
small, which we are already eliminating with the efforts of the
minibrigades.

Havana's population grew.  When Havana's population grows it is a real
headache.  There are water problems with the old water system, which we
will have to rebuild in the coming years.  There are sewer, housing, and
transportation problems, whose solution we are now completely involved in.
We will work even more on its each day, but not only in the capital.  The
country's development must be equal, and it is becoming equal.  We could
even say that it was a priority during many years of the Revolution.  That
is why today we can see such major changes, such as the ones that are
evident in Cienfugeos, Las Tunas, Camaguey, Holguin, and in almost all the
capitals of the new provinces.  All this gives us the impression that life
in those places is much more peaceful, quiet, and safe than the life in the
capital.  At least, those provinces have much more water.  It is not the
the same thing to supply water to a city of 100,000 or 150,000 or 200,000
people like Camaguey, as it is to supply water to a city whose population
is 2 million.  It is a place where there is competition for water by the
agricultural sector, which must produce the necessary food, as well as by
industries, services, and the people.

Looking at this calm, beautiful, cool environment--notice the breeze--tell
me if your could compare air conditioning to it.  At this time, one can't
help but feel--I will not say envy, it would not be proper, but there
could be some--above all satisfaction, and desire to congratulate the
workers of this prestigious enterprise who will live in this community that
we have inaugurated today.  Fatherland or death, we shall win! [applause].
-END-


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