The economic news reflects the disturbing course followed by many countries due to the impact of the pandemic, a situation from which Cuba is not exempt.

With encouraging results in the fight against COVID-19, compared to those shown in other regions, Cuba must overcome the marked health expenses as well as those directed to food guarantees.

It is understandable given the dilemma of this poor country, subjected to a fierce blockade imposed by the United States and pressured by the inactivity in the tourism sector and the collapse of the world trade system.

In that context, Cuban leaders must call on the island's agricultural workers and farmers to do everything possible to generate more foodstuffs.

Cuba will only depend on the nutrients obtained from local agriculture, a different angle from previous years, when producers relied on imports.  Today, the country lacks the necessary budget to purchase those in a troubled external market.  

However, producing more with scarce resources at hand is the issue to be addressed.  The essential premise is so reasonable that it must be undertaken with planting during the upcoming season.

With restrictions also in fuel supply, farmers, members of cooperatives and farm workers must appeal to traditional science and natural skills to overcome limitations.

The use of organic products to replace the absence of herbicides and pesticides, the best use of irrigation equipment, promoting production poles and planting in any soil, constitute the Cubans commitments.

As never before, the emphasis on hard work to achieve local self-supply, and urged by the timely explanation about the country's situation has become urgent.

The economy is adopting more dynamic mechanisms in order to encourage these new efforts, such as facilitating access to basic resources for companies and farm workers and authorizing non-State management methods to export abroad.

Likewise, tax concessions are being granted to exporters in the hope of greater contributions.

The fact that Cuba needs to plant at least 130 thousand more hectares of land, should be construed as the driving force to design more substantial individual and collective plans.