While millions of Cubans are struggling to find food, Miguel Díaz-Canel expressed excitement this Friday about a precision agriculture project using drones and robotic platforms at the Institute of Cybernetics, Mathematics and Physics (ICIMAF) in Havana, during one of his weekly visits to scientific centers in the country.
The visit, reported by the official site of the Presidency and by Canal Caribe, highlighted as a milestone that a young automation engineer, who graduated from CUJAE just a year ago, is working on a "4.0 agriculture" project that uses drones for monitoring and treating crops.
The reaction on social media was as predictable as it was devastating. One internet user summed up what many Cubans think: "When will we have the production of beans, starchy vegetables, greens, and fruits? Currently, three or four million humble Cubans are slowly dying from hunger."
Cuba imports around 70% of its food supply—recent estimates suggest an even higher dependency—with an estimated cost exceeding $2 billion annually, as reported by the World Food Programme. The National Food Security Survey 2025 conducted by the Food Monitor Program, presented in May of this year, found that over 90% of respondents had lost some degree of access to food purchases in the past year, and 33.9% reported that at least one member of their household had gone to bed hungry due to a lack of food in the previous 30 days.
In this context, "agriculture 4.0" with drones exists in Cuba mainly as a pilot agenda and a propagandistic discourse of modernization. Meanwhile, Cuban agriculture has returned to the use of oxen and windmills due to the energy collapse that paralyzes agricultural machinery.
Díaz-Canel himself acknowledged during his visit to ICIMAF—where he learned about other scientific projects, particularly those related to healthcare and energy—that "the tremendous talent present in this institution [...] should be put to better use." He criticized that some of its results "are not being requested, supported, or utilized in various sectors of the economy." Who, if not the government he leads, has spent decades failing to support, employ, or, to say the least, fairly compensate the talent and research of scientists?
The visit to ICIMAF follows a pattern that no one is trying to hide anymore. On August 21, Díaz-Canel toured the CDZ Cubanacán in the municipality of Playa and called for turning every available space into gardens. In July, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz demanded planting in Arroyo Naranjo, arguing that “the food issue is crucial, and you, unlike other defense areas, have land”. Tours, speeches, calls to action. No extra beans on the table.
The irony reaches its peak when recalling what happened in Guantánamo just three weeks ago: tons of mangos rotted in the fields because the state collection system lacked fuel and transportation to gather the harvest.
The regime does not need drones to know what is failing. The Minister of Food Industry, Alberto López Díaz, admitted in June that the standardized basket had not distributed oil, chicken, or yogurt so far this year. The internet user's question remains unanswered: when will the beans be available?
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