The deep food crisis that Cuba is experiencing forced the government to announce this Thursday one of the most extensive reforms of the agricultural sector in decades, which includes a thorough transformation of the regulations governing agriculture, an expansion of usufruct rights, the decentralization of prices, and greater commercial freedoms for cooperatives and producers.
Among the 176 economic and social reforms presented by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz before the National Assembly of People's Power, Axis 7 focuses on measures aimed at easing land management, expanding the powers of producers, and reducing some controls that have defined agricultural activity for years, noted the report from the official newspaper Granma.
The new provisions uphold the principle that the land belongs to the entire people, but they significantly expand the possibilities for usufruct.
Individuals, state-owned companies, private enterprises, mixed entities, and other management forms will be able to request land for an indefinite period for agricultural, forestry, and tobacco activities, as well as for eco-tourism and agrotourism projects.
The reform also removes one of the traditional requirements of the system, namely the obligation for the usufructuary to work the land directly and continuously.
It also empowers the state-owned company that manages the land to deliver it through contracts and authorizes the allocation of land in usufruct to Agricultural Production Cooperatives, subject to the prior approval of their general assemblies.
The measures come shortly after President Miguel Díaz-Canel publicly acknowledged the seriousness of the country's food situation during the Extraordinary Plenary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party held on Wednesday.
In the meeting, the leader stated that "there is no sovereignty with an empty plate" and elevated food security to the level of a national security issue.
It was also announced that unproductive lands should be put to use or handed over to those willing to work them.
The transformation also extends to the management model of cooperatives. They will be able to import and market fuel, engage in foreign trade operations directly, manage external financing, open bank accounts abroad, and access new avenues for acquiring technology and supplies.
Another significant change is the deregulation of agricultural marketing and price formation. The government proposes to decentralize price-setting and allow these to be negotiated between producers and buyers, a correction that comes after Díaz-Canel himself recently acknowledged that price caps failed to contain inflation and, in many cases, led to shortages and market distortions.
The new rules also recognize a broader role for market mechanisms. All economic actors will be able to trade agricultural supplies and equipment in both pesos and foreign currencies, while the creation of specialized markets involving both domestic and foreign individuals and legal entities will be encouraged.
The reform also includes tax incentives for those who import and market agricultural supplies, as well as the creation of banking mechanisms that facilitate transactions in foreign currency, including electronic payments, transfers, and transactions with magnetic cards.
The measures complement the Draft Law on Agricultural and Forestry Land released this month by the National Assembly, which already proposed expanding certain usufruct rights and flexible management aspects of agriculture, although it keeps the principle of state ownership over the land intact and imposes strict restrictions on its transfer and commercialization.
The urgency of reforms is directly related to the decline in national production. According to data cited by the authorities themselves, Cuba produces only a fraction of the food it needs, imports between 70% and 80% of what it consumes, and faces a situation in which large sectors of the population struggle to access adequate nutrition.
In this context, the expansion of rights for producers and cooperatives represents an implicit acknowledgment that the current agricultural model has failed to ensure the country’s supply.
The challenge for the authorities will now be to turn these new powers into concrete results in the Cuban fields, where decades of controls, lack of supplies, and minimal incentives have contributed to the productive collapse that now forces the regime to reconsider the rules of the sector.
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