Havana, January 18 (RHC)-– Cuba continues to make progress in the leasing of State-owned land to small farmers, who since 2008 have received over a million hectares of what was previously idle land. One of the main reforms promoted by President Raúl Castro to promote domestic food production and help cut the huge imported food bill that conditions Cuban international reserves.

New legislation has also recently come into force, allowing the increase to 67.10 hectares (five acres) the amount of lands leased to individual farmers.

As a requirement, the island also established that those lands should be linked to state farms with legal status, such as the Basic Units of Cooperative Production (UBPC), and Agricultural Production Cooperatives (CPA).

These measures have been implemented as part of the economic and social reforms pushed forward by the government of President Raul Castro, who has described food production as a matter of “national security.”

“This is an effort to revitalize an agriculture sector hampered by decades of government mismanagement” said Raul Castro.