In flip flops and without means of protection, this is how many peasants in Cuba must produce

Although the main factors influencing the fact that Cuban agriculture is in crisis are the bureaucracy and inefficiency of state agricultural companies mediating the production process and marketing, the lack of investment in the sector, the mismanagement of the little that there is and the obstacles related to the use and possession of the land, there are many other apparently "minor" problems, but that also affect the productivity of the field.

One of them is the precarious working conditions of farmers, who are required, without being able to satisfy it, to put enough food on the table of each family and at the lowest possible price.

"We have to work in flip-flops or barefoot if there is mud, because normal leather boots cost more than 1,000 pesos on the street and they don't last long, they break right away. The State sells them for 850, but they are rarely available in the cooperative and they are of poor quality. Too expensive. If you buy them, you have to stop eating," Ismael, a young tobacco worker in Mayarí, told DIARIO DE CUBA.

"And the wellies are more lost and even more expensive, at between 2,000 and 2,500 pesos, when you find them. Who can afford those prices? How expensive is life, with oil at 300 pesos a bottle a and pork at 180 per pound, the little you earn cannot be taken for shoes. There is no other option than to take a pair of half-broken shoes, flip-flops, or go barefoot."

There are currently no offers of work shoes, gloves or other means of protection, at least in Holguín. Farmers have to wait for someone who happens to have a pair and wants to sell them. The origin can be the assignment to a worker in a construction company with more resources, military companies that are prioritized or someone stealing it from a warehouse.

Miguel is also a farm laborer and wears second-hand military clothing "because it's more resistant and they haven't sold work clothes in a long time at the cooperative."

"Those who are going through 'the green' (Military Service) sometimes sell used uniforms or shoes, but still in good condition, when they get the new one. And one decides," he explains.

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"The difficult part is fumigating tobacco or any other crop with poison. You have to do it with a clean face because there are no means of protection. They say you should wear a rubber suit and a mask, but I've never seen that. The peasants have nothing to work with, it is what appears with; as the saying goes, 'axe and machete'", he laments.

But the vicissitudes are not reduced only to the means of protection, footwear and clothing. Finding farm tools is also an odyssey. "The hoes and machetes they sell are made of very bad iron. They don't hold an edge," says Yosmany, a young farmer who grows various crops on his father's five-hectare farm.

"And they haven't sold anything for a long time. The last time the prices were sky-high. The solution we've invented, with the hoes at least, is to chop them in half and, with rivets, tie a piece of blade to them saw of those that are discarded in the State sawmill, which are made of iron from abroad (imported) and the edge lasts".

"But the madness is to sharpen them, because no one can find a file 'not even in the spiritual centers.' up to 1,000 pesos. It's crazy that a file costs so much and it doesn't even appear. That kills the man, because working is not bad, the bad thing is spending work to work, "he adds, shrugging his shoulders helplessly.

In effect, these are vicissitudes that are added to the rest of the obstacles, inconsistencies, pressures, shortages and robberies suffered by the men and women who in the Cuban countryside dedicate themselves to agriculture, a hard trade and much consecration. It is under these conditions that the Government of the Communist Party (PCC) is asking them to guarantee the country's food security in order to reduce food imports.

It is something for which Cuba has plenty of potential, but with the dysfunctional economic model imposed by the PCC and with such working conditions, it is impossible to achieve.