Yes

 

First Secretary of the Party's Central Committee and President of the Republic Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez called for the food needed in the Isle of Youth, where some 80,000 people live, to be sown in the shortest possible time in that municipality, at the 15 de Mayo tobacco production center.

After the ceremony for the 70th anniversary of the release of Fidel and Moncada fighters, and prior to the meeting with the young people of the Isle of Youth, the Head of State, together with member of the Political Bureau and Secretary of Organization of the Central Committee of the Party Roberto Morales Ojeda gave continuity, in a second round, to the work system of the Party leadership in the territories.
At the beginning of the working visit, Diaz-Canel toured areas of the Pioneers Palace, which occupies buildings of the former Presidio Modelo, and where the first secretary of the Municipal Committee of the Party, Rafael Ernesto Licea Mojena, informed him about the rehabilitation and operation of an enclosure that is part of the childhood and adolescence of several generations of the Isle of Youth residents.
Already in one of the enclaves of the municipal tobacco company, he learned that the productive pole 15 de Mayo has five caballerias of land (67 hectares), which had been idle for four years; only 1.7 hectares were cultivated.
However, from January of this year to date, the collective, with the support and territorial commitment, has recovered the strategy of self-sufficiency in the lands located on the edge of the Sierra de Caballos.
The landscape in this area of northeastern the Isle of Youth has now acquired a new quality, more beautiful, according to Díaz-Canel, as the most typical of the island's nature and the hard work of its men and women converge.
Of the 67 hectares of the productive pole, only about seven have yet to be planted, the rest is covered by crops such as cassava, which occupies most of the space, banana, pumpkin, vegetables...
After the spring harvest, the company's management and the people of the production pole expect to start planting tobacco in October, initially on ten hectares, to evaluate the results. For this purpose, they are preparing several curing houses.

Tobacco has not been planted here for four years, but the tradition of the crop is still alive in the old farmers and technicians, who also hope that the crop, which pays well - including foreign currency - will allow them to promote other crops, such as miscellaneous crops and vegetables.

The President inquired about the progress of the self-sufficiency program in the municipality, especially the rustic crops, in which cassava and sweet potato have already achieved and overachieved, according to the per capita hectares per inhabitant. The same is not true for plantain, malanga and yam.

He insisted on the concepts to develop these varieties and, at the same time, reviewed the projections for the production of rice, beans, eggs, and oil, from soybean and sesame.

He asked about the income received by the collective from the entity, which is around 8,000 pesos per month, although they plan, after the harvests, with the distribution of profits, to reach an average of 20,000 pesos, according to Raul Fernandez, director of the Tobacco Company.
Before the usual meeting, at the end of these tours with Party cadres and territorial managers of the social and economic spheres, the Head of State visited the Meñique children's circle, inaugurated this school year in a large and airy building recovered by the institutions and enterprises of the territory, for the care of children of working families.

With an enrollment of 150 children, of which 80 are already occupied, the center is attended by educators and assistants committed to provide all the love required by the infants in the different stages of life, including pre-school.

The President wrote in the visitors' book his impressions about the center: “It is important to highlight -he wrote in his own handwriting- how with commitment, effort and dedication they have managed to build and put into operation this beautiful children's center in difficult times and with a lack of resources”.