in the case of coffee and cattle. On the other hand, maximum retail prices have been established for beef, rice, and milk in order to protect consumers. In September 1939 a decree established maximum prices for 28 basic foodstuffs; the following week rice was included. Later these were modified to include both wholesale and retail prices of articles of prime necessity. Subsequently, some of the prices proved to be too rigid and inflexible and therefore provision was made to vary prices. In August 1941 a new decree specified the method by which "fair" prices for both the wholesale and the retail trade were to be determined on a cost-plus basis. Wholesalers were to supply current cost-price information periodically and the Ministry of Commerce was to publish a weekly bulletin of fair prices. The most important instance of control of production is in the case of sugar, where a semigovernmental agency-the Sugar Stabilization Institute determines production quotas for each mill and in turn for individual producers. The control extends to the exports of sugar. Another instance of export control is that of coffee, 30 percent of the production of which may be required to be exported. In order to stimulate diversification and increase the production of food crops during the war a decree law on February 4, 1942, required all farmers with more than 167 acres of land, and sugar mills growing their own cane, to devote a specified portion of their land to the production of obligatory food crops (except sugar), such as rice, corn, peanuts, and beans. Cattlemen may produce hogs instead of food crops-30 hogs being considered equivalent to 10 acres of food crops. Direct aid in the form of grants and loans has been extended by the Government in a few instances, notably the distribution of free rice seed to small farmers and the granting of loans for the construction of rice mills and a cooperative packing plant in Habana. Other Government measures under consideration involve the construction of numerous irrigation projects and storage warehouses and the purchase of agricultural equipment. Direct Government aid also has been provided for rehabilitating unemployed through the distribution of Government-owned lands. The Government also maintains foresttree nurseries for the production of seedling trees to stimulate reforestation. Cuba has no Government agricultural-credit organization, although there is a great need for credit, particularly to finance harvesting and marketing. Plans for farm credit have been studied repeatedly. Research, education, and extension are all carried on by experiment stations and the Ministry of Agriculture, although the work is handicapped primarily by lack of adequate funds and in some cases by insecurity of tenure. Large sugar companies also carry on agricultural research, not only in an effort to improve sugar production, but also to find alternative products to supplement the sugar crop. Agricultural education is given in six secondary agricultural schools, one in each Province, and the College of Agriculture in the University of Habana. Extension work is carried on both directly from the Ministry through agricultural publications, reports, radio releases, demonstrations, and fairs and through the 126 municipal agricultural inspectors, one of whom is located in each municipality. These inspectors are generally comparable to the county agents in the United States, but in Cuba their work consists primarily of reporting on crop conditions and prices. They have limited training, receive relatively low salaries, and are handicapped by lack of operating funds, equipment, assistance, and transportation. FUTURE AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT The foregoing estimates of the degree of agricultural self-sufficiency are based on present consumption, but this obviously varies widely according to the degree of prosperity. In the past, the volume of imports, even of the basic food items, has varied with the volume of Cuba's exports. Furthermore, the purchasing power of a large part of the Cuban population is so low that any improvement is reflected in increased food consumption. Consumption of many agricultural products could be materially increased in the interests of better nutrition and health. This is true not only of the staple items, rice, corn, beans, lard, and meat, but especially of such items as dairy products, eggs, and fresh vegetables. Cuba's consumption of milk, butter, cheese, and leafy vegetables is very low when compared with that in many other countries. Increased agricultural production, therefore, need not necessarily be reflected in increased exports or decreased imports. The production of dairy products and vegetables for domestic consumption could easily be expanded if there were an increased demand on the domestic market. To develop increased consumption would require increased consumer purchasing power, improved marketing facilities, such as transportation and refrigeration, in addition to consumer education as to the desirability of greater use of these products. Only a part of the total number of cows in Cuba are now being used for dairy production. Beef production could also be expanded through improvement in breeds and the control of ticks and possibly through supplemental feeding. The latter is purely an economic consideration, since the usual low price of beef does not justify the feeding of expensive grain. Production of the principal food crops-rice, corn, beans, onions, and garlic could also be increased. In the case of rice increased production will depend primarily on the construction of irrigation works (see fig. 43), and it is doubtful whether Cuba will ever be able to produce more than a part of its total rice requirements. As for other products, however, production -could easily be increased with the incentive of improved marketing and storage facilities. Production of vegetable oil from peanuts will probably expand and supply an increasing proportion of the domestic requirements, but Cuba will probably never be able to replace all import requirements because the country is not adapted for production of certain kinds of fats and oils. It may be possible to supplement peanut-oil production with plantings of the African oil palm if experiments now being made in Cuba continue to prove satisfactory. For nonedible oils the production of castor beans could probably be increased to supply fully the domestic requirements of that oil and possibly some exports as well. Experimental plantings of tung trees indicate that it may be possible to produce tung oil on an export basis. The development of additional crops for export in most cases requires further experimentation to determine the most suitable varieties, methods of production, and market requirements and prices.58 Bananas 58 According to the findings of the agricultural commission that in 1941 studied the possibilities of develop ing new export products in Cuba. have long been grown in Cuba and have played an important part in exports, but further expansion would probably require that this industry be reorganized from the present extensive methods of production used in the mountainous region in Oriente to more intensive methods. FIGURE 43.-Irrigation is needed in Cuba, particularly for rice and for other crops during the dry winter season. A, Diversion dam across a small river; B, irrigating a row crop. These would involve plantings in other regions with more nearly level areas of fertile soils suitable for irrigation and spraying in order to control the sigatoka disease, which appears to threaten future banana production. Cacao also has long been grown on an extensive basis in eastern Cuba, but production has been greatly reduced because of increased competition from other countries and from other crops in Cuba. It is possible that new plantings of the best-quality criollo-type cacao may permit production again to reach a profitable export basis. Cacao in Cuba has not been subject to the witches'-broom disease, a serious factor in some other countries. Production of cassava, or tapioca, starch for export also appears to offer possibilities if the present manufacturing processes are improved to provide more economical operation and to produce a higher-quality starch than that now customarily used in Cuba. The United States now imports large quantities of cassava starch from the Far East. Varieties of yuca used in the production of cassava starch should also be improved to increase yields and reduce the cost of the raw material. Kapok, and certain other fibers, in addition to tung oil and castorbeans, appears to offer future possibilities for production for export if further experimentation continues to give favorable results. Some other products of which the United States is a heavy importer do not appear to be well adapted for production in Cuba. Among these are rubber, cinchona or quinine, abacá or manila hemp, and silk. Rubber production in Cuba does not appear to be economically feasible because Cuba does not have a sufficiently warm and moist climate for the commercial development of large plantations of Pará or Hevea rubber. Quinine production on a commercial scale requires that planting be made at a high elevation, and the preparation of the bark for market requires a large amount of cheap hand labor. In this respect Cuba, with its higher wage standards, would be at a disadvantage when compared with the countries where lower wages prevail. Similarly, the economical production of abacá, or manila hemp, requires a deep, rich, soil and a warm climate with frequent and heavy rainfall in order to produce high yields. Furthermore, the decortication also requires a great deal of cheap hand labor. The use of machinery for this purpose has not proven entirely satisfactory. Silk could be produced in Cuba, but not at a price comparable with that of silk from the Far East, where labor costs are very low. The further development of Cuba's agriculture depends in large measure on diversifying production both for export and for domestic use. Not only can urban consumption be increased, thus providing a market for greater agricultural production, but Cuba's farmers should produce more of the food they themselves consume on the farm, such as milk, eggs, fruit, and vegetables. In order to accomplish this the agricultural education and extension services in Cuba should be greatly strengthened to reach farmers effectively in all parts of the island. This, in turn, would require not only increased Government expenditure for such work to provide trained personnel, adequate assistance, equipment, and means of transportation, but also the placing of the personnel of these services on a permanent merit basis with greater security of tenure. Improved farm prices and marketing facilities should play an important part in the future development of agriculture. In most cases the anticipated financial return is the principal incentive for production, and when farmers do not have reasonable assurance of being able to sell their products they are not willing to venture the expense of production. In the case of most farm products in Cuba, except sugar and a few others, there is a very wide spread between prices received by the growers and prices at the central markets. Improved methods and facilities for marketing, such as improved roads, storage facilities, price information, and extension of credit to facilitate harvesting and marketing, would do much to improve actual returns to growers. The need for agricultural credit was pointed out by the Foreign Policy Association in 1934 (12), which stated that credit facilities in Cuba were prohibitive and the cost ruinously high because the grower was usually forced to sell at unfavorable prices to local agencies that have advanced credit to him. The absence of year-round roads in many agricultural areas is in itself a severe handicap to the marketing of farm products. As a whole, the possibilities of future development of Cuban agriculture appear bright. The natural factors are favorable. The country has large areas of good soil and a good climate, with a continuous growing period although the rainfall is relatively low during the winter months. Cuba is not overpopulated-its agricultural production could maintain a relatively high standard of domestic consumption in addition to a thriving export trade. It is centrally located, near markets in the United States and near the trade routes of interAmerican commerce. Furthermore, most of its products are of a semitropical nature either not produced in the United States or produced in insufficient quantities. LITERATURE CITED (1) ACUÑA, JULIAN, and ZAYAS, FERNANDo de. 1940. FRUTA BOMBA O PAPAYA: CONSIDERACIONES ECONÓMICAS Y OBSERRev. de Agr. [Cuba] 23 VACIONES SOBRE SUS ENFERMEDADES. (10-15): 49-80, illus. (2) ADAMS, JOHN QUINCY. 1917. WRITINGS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. Edited by Worthington Chauncey Ford. V. 7. (3) AGETE Y PIÑE[I]RO, FERNANDO. 1936. EL Café. 118 pp., illus. Habana. (4) 1938. LA FRUTA BOMBA. Santiago de las Vegas Estac. Expt. Agron. Cir. 76 (ed. 2), 26 pp., illus. (5) AMERICAN POULTRY ASSOCIATION. 1940. THE AMERICAN STANDARD OF PERFECTION. A COMPLETE DESCRIP- (6) BENNETT, HUGH H., and ALLISON, ROBERT V. 1928. THE SOILS OF CUBA. 410 pp., illus. Washington, D. C. (7) BERNHARDT, Joshua. 1920. GOVERNMENT CONTROL OF THE SUGAR INDUSTRY IN THE UNITED (8) CUBA ECONÓMICA Y FINANCIERA. 1940. ANUARIO AZUCARERO DE CUBA 1940. CENSO DE LA INDUSTRIA AZUCARERA DE CUBA Y MANUAL ESTADÍSTICO INTERNACIONAL. 124 pp., illus. Habana. (9) CUBA SECRETARÍA DE HACIENDA, ESTADÍSTICA GENERAL. 1907, 1932, 1939. INDUSTRIA AZUCARERA Y SUS DERIVADOS. Zafra de 1904-1905, 60 pp., illus.; Zafra de 1932, 75 pp., illus.; Zafra de 1939, 127 pp., illus. (10) DAVIES, HOWELL, ed. 1941. CUBA. In The South American Handbook, ed. 18, pp. 347-361. London. (11) DICKENS, PAUL D. 1938. AMERICAN DIRECT INVESTMENTS IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES, 1936. U. S. Dept. Com. Econ. Ser., Finance Div., No. 1, 49 pp., illus. (12) FOREIGN POLICY ASSOCIATION, COMMISSION ON CUBAN AFFAIRS. 1935. PROBLEMS OF NEW CUBA. 523 pp., illus. New York. |