Cuba to Allow Private Farming
Land Will Remain in Government Hands, However

By Will Weissert
Associated Press
Saturday, July 19, 2008

HAVANA, July 18 -- Communist officials decreed Friday that private farmers and cooperatives can use as much as 100 acres of idle government land, as President Rául Castro works to revive Cuba's floundering agricultural sector.

The law, published in the Communist Party newspaper Granma, did not say how much state land would be turned over to private hands and gave no indication of how many Cubans might apply.

But it described the measure as a way to help Cuba solve the problem of underused land while cutting food imports that are expected to cost the government $2 billion this year.

Landless Cubans can be given a bit more than 33 acres, while those who already have fully producing plots can add enough state land to bring their total holdings to 100 acres.

Existing state farms, cooperatives and factories also can apply for underused land.

Ownership will stay with the state. Private farmers can get concessions of as much as 10 years, renewable for another 10. Cooperatives and companies can have renewable 25-year terms. And all will have to pay taxes for the lands, though the decree gave no details.

Although the individual parcels are small, the widespread transfer of farmland from public to private hands could change the face of farming in a country where the government controls more than 90 percent of the economy.

The decree noted that Cuba now suffers from "a considerable percentage of idle state lands," making it necessary to grant concessions "with the objective of elevating food production and reducing importation."

Government statistics released last month show that the percentage of fallow or underused Cuban farmland increased to 55 percent in 2007, up from 46 percent in 2002. Twenty-nine percent of land on state farms is actively used.

After Fidel Castro took power in 1959, the government expropriated many large farms and agricultural holdings while allowing thousands of small farmers to keep their plots and sell their produce to the state.

The new measure does not specify where farmers will sell their output, but nearly all private farmers now are required to sell most of their produce to the state.