Word: cuba
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...first years, "the years of ignorance" as Fidel now calls them, the revolutionary government concentrated its energy and resources on industrializing the country. When the program began to falter badly three years ago, the government's view of Cuba's economic potential changed, and the present period of intensive investment in agriculture was begun...
Livestock levels, which fell drastically in the first years of the new regime, have now passed their 1958 mark, and the government launched an intensive drive for artificial insemination of cattle late this spring. Practically all of Cuba's beef is exported to gain hard currency on the international market. Each Cuban is allowed only a quarter pound of beef a week, and milk is reserved for children under seven, and the aged over 65. So the Cubans themselves still do not receive direct benefits from the strides being made by the livestock industry. Although serious diversification efforts are underway...
Government plans called for a crop of 7.5 million tons this year. When the final figures were released after the harvest ended in late June, Cuba had produced 6.1 million tons. This crop was the third largest in Cuban history, and thus did not represent a shattering set-back for the economy...
Government plans to increase crop yields are based on hopes to change the type of plant harvested. At the moment, Cuba averages 40 tons of cane per acre, while Jamaica, with essentially the same climatic conditions, yields 60 tons an acre. In Hawaii, the figure is 200 tons. The Cuban economic planners are now slowly replacing old cane plants with new ones which yield much more sugar. But this is a slow process because cane lasts for 10 or 15 years and only 10 per cent of the entire crop is replanted each year...
...Castro regime, the world price for sugar has fallen to a new low of about two cents a pound. Russia pays six cents for Cuban sugar under a special trade agreement. (Before the Revolution, the United States gave a similar preferential price to the Cubans.) This year Cuba is reportedly committed to send Russia 4 million tons, a commitment it will not meet. Two years ago, with a crop of 5.3 million tons, Cuba had to buy sugar from Mexico in order to fulfill its international contracts...