A Basic Unit of Production (UBPC) in Cuba |
The Cuban
government has approved a package of measures to rescue the system of
autonomously managed farming cooperatives known as UBPCs, which cultivate 28
percent of the nation's arable land.
Communist Party
daily Granma said Tuesday that the plan will take effect immediately and seeks
to eliminate the subjection to state companies under which these cooperatives
have been laboring, by providing them with greater autonomy and new sources of
financing.
The newspaper noted
that these cooperatives are not state companies and though they were "well
conceived" back in 1994, their autonomy has been "constricted to
almost unsustainable levels."
UBPCs were founded
with more than half the country's arable land going to workers rent-free, but
they had to comply with high production quotas to supply the state with food
that would go to hospitals, schools and other institutions.
Granma recalled
Tuesday that what were originally state farms were made into UBPC farming
cooperatives in order to revitalize the agricultural system through autonomy of
management, though they were never able to "get organized
organically" due to their domination by state companies.
In that sense, the
daily said it was often considered normal for state companies to impose
production plans, supervisors and even business decisions on the UBPCs.
Of the 2,519
cooperatives of this kind in country in 1994, some 1,989 remain in 2012.
UBPCs take up more
than 1.7 million hectares (4.2 million acres) and closed the year 2010 with 15
percent of the cooperatives in the red.
It is estimated
that 57 percent of the UBPCs have troubles that can be "put right,"
while 16 percent are in such critical condition they have little hope of
recovery.
In its financial
provisions, the new plan aims to liquidate the debt of these cooperatives and
boost their capitalization by different means, though it does specify that
starting in 2013 they will receive no funding from the government budget.
In Cuba, the
revival of agriculture and increased production are considered a matter of
"national security," because the country spends more than $1.5
billion a year to import 80 percent of the food it consumes.
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