Tobacco farmers from Pinar del Río, faced with the challenge of a harvest without resources and the fear of losing their lands

[El Presidente]

We have touched on this before. Appalling. 

 

https://www.martinoticias.com/a/tabacaleros-de-pinar-del-río-ante-el-desafío-de-una-zafra-sin-recursos-y-el-miedo-a-perder-sus-tierras-video-/376279.html

 

Tobacco farmers from Pinar del Río, faced with the challenge of a harvest without resources and the fear of losing their lands (VIDEO)

A tobacco farm in La Coloma, Pinar del Río, on February 28, 2023. AP Photo/Ismael Francisco

With a plan of 12,905 hectares, the 2023-2024 tobacco campaign began on October 20 in Pinar del Río. From this province, producers in San Juan and Martínez, the tobacco mecca in Cuba, describe the difficult conditions they face in the recently begun harvest.

Osmany Poveda Hernández , who works at the Hermanos Saíz tobacco cooperative, said that a week ago its director threatened the peasant producers: if they fail to comply with the plan agreed upon by the authorities, they will take away their usufruct lands.

“Right now the farmers here are completely outraged, because they are being forced, telling them that if they don't plant they will take their lands. At the meeting, the president of the cooperative also confirmed that there was nothing to give to the farmers, there is no fertilizer, there is nothing, there is no type of product that they can give them, that is without counting oil. ”Poveda explained.

The campaign to prepare land for the current tobacco harvest is very late, mainly due to lack of inputs and fuel, and the land has not yet been labeled. The Cuban authorities decided to extend the planting stage until December 31, which will compromise the quality of the tobacco by violating the schedule.

Added to this is the discontent on the part of the harvesters due to non-payments from last season. There are also many drying houses that are still damaged, 13 months after Hurricane Ian passed through western Cuba.

 

Pinar del Río produces 65% of the tobacco in the country, and more than 20 tons of tobacco from the 2022-2023 tobacco campaign that were stored in drying houses got wet and were lost as part of the damage caused by the passage of the meteor on September 27 of last year.

Tobacco grower Jorge Luis Hernández , who works at the 40th anniversary cooperative, said: “Here they have us deceived, without conditions of any kind, nothing, zero, they do not give us what we need to manufacture the tobacco houses.”

Cecilio Saavedra, also a producer from that cooperative, described the terrible working conditions that they face and assured that the authorities do not allow producers to harvest food for their own consumption, despite the shortage and high prices of grains, rice and the vegetables. The farmer who tries to grow something other than tobacco also risks confiscation of the usufruct.

“What they are doing to the peasants is an abuse, and what is needed is for them to hit us in the back with the whip. So, what are we going to live on if we don't have support to go to a store to buy a little beans, we have nothing,” said Saavedra.

Juan Ponciana assured that the conditions faced by the majority of producers in the San Juan area are terrible.

“If the farmers don't produce, they take away their land... tobacco houses that have been empty for 10 years. There is nothing else here, the workers without eating, without having a cup of coffee, without having a cup of milk, without eating a plate of lunch, because neither lunch nor food,” he said.

Marino Murillo Jorge, director of the Tabacuba Business Group, during a visit to that region, in view of the current tobacco harvest, on October 26 and 27, he promised greater profits to those who produce more.

"We are going to pay more for overcompliance; anyone who collects 1.4 tons of tobacco per hectare does not have to pay fifty percent of the cost of inputs," explained Murillo.

[El Presidente]

I can't get the subtitles to work. 

For Spanish speakers, frightening.