Related videos:
While one in three Cubans suffers from hunger and the agricultural sector faces historic declines, the Ministry of Agriculture found time this week for something truly urgent: training the future leaders. The Fructuoso Rodríguez Pérez Agricultural University hosted an exchange with youth from the sector organized by the MINAG, "focused on how to train efficient leaders committed to the future of the country," according to the Cuban News Agency.
The event centered around the diploma course "Executives of the Future," a program that has been offered at the higher education institution since 2023 and aims, according to its promoters, to "ensure the continuity of the organization and strengthen ties with universities and scientific centers." The main requirement for participation is not, as one might suppose, the ability to produce food: the program prioritizes young individuals with "a strong revolutionary responsibility," who are connected to production, science, and innovation.
Authorities in the sector emphasized that these opportunities are "vital for future executives to be better prepared to lead companies and projects, in order to strengthen the agricultural development of the province and the country." A statement that sounds reasonable until it is contrasted with the actual numbers from Cuban agriculture.
The agricultural sector recorded a 53% drop in primary production in 2024, marking the worst sectoral performance in an economy that contracted by 1.1% of GDP that year. The rice production plummeted from 304,000 tons in 2018 to just 111,000 in 2025, and in 2024 Cuba harvested around 80,000 tons, which is 11% of the national demand. The country imports up to 80% of the food it consumes, at a cost of about 2 billion dollars annually.
Official data from January 2025 confirmed declines of 44% in root vegetables, 43% in eggs, and 37.6% in cow's milk. In Villa Clara, the 2024-2025 potato harvest was classified as a "resounding failure": only 2,240 tons from over 200 hectares, with yields at half of what is considered normal. Due to the lack of fuel for machinery, Cuban agriculture has had to revert to the use of oxen, windmills, and solar pumps.
It’s not that the regime hasn’t tried, at least on paper. In May 2021, it launched a package of 63 measures to boost agricultural production. Two years later, the government itself admitted that "the expected results were not achieved." In April 2026, it also announced the end of the formal monopoly of the Acopio system through Decree 143, although it maintained state controls over prices and destinations, which, according to private companies amounts to sabotaging production.
The result of decades of revolutionary management of agriculture is precisely measured by a survey conducted by the Food Monitor Program and Cuido60, presented this month: 33.9% of Cuban households reported having experienced hunger recently. 94.9% lost access to buying food during the year, 97.6% pointed out issues with the supply of essential products, and only 1.2% considers the variety of state markets to be complete. "We practically live on air," summarized a Cuban resident consulted by Infobae.
In that context, the diploma program offers master's degrees in phylogenetic resources, plant health, animal health, irrigation and drainage, and business management.
The contrast between academic pomp and the reality of the Cuban countryside is so pronounced that it’s hard not to wonder exactly what future those leaders are being prepared for, when the present accumulates empty markets, growing hunger, and an agriculture that is regressing decades in technology and yield. Given the pace of impoverishment the country is experiencing, how many Cubans and under what conditions will reach that future?
Filed under: