We must look deep into the archipelago, into the land, into the intelligence of Cubans, because it is in what is ours where the best guarantee to solve the country's demands and problems lies; because the less we depend on imports, the stronger we will be in the paths of efficiency and sovereignty.
Such concept was the prevailing axis, this Monday afternoon, during the tour made by the President of the Republic and First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, in the municipality of Bauta, in the province of Artemisa.
It was not fortuitous that in the first item on the agenda, in the basic business unit (UEB) Production of Stomatological and Dispensary Products - subordinated to the Roberto Escudero Pharmaceutical Laboratory Company - the Head of State spoke about the need for research "on the raw materials that we can replace" and also on the value of improving the quality of the presentations of each product, always in order to gain the population's confidence in what is made with Cuban hands.
Marlene Domínguez Alfonso, director of the UEB, explained to the president, to the member of the Political Bureau and Secretary of Organization, Roberto Morales Ojeda, and to the authorities of the territory, details about the main tasks that occupy the productive entity.
The year 2024, he argued to the Presidential press team, will be just as complex if compared to previous stages. However, he added, "based on a group of strategies that the Company has, and with it our UEB, we plan to make up for the deficit we have in raw materials".
In this not easy and urgent task of substituting imports, 2023 meant the achievement of three national raw materials; among them, beeswax, corn starch and mint. They were, explained Marlene, "raw materials that we should have imported", and with whose substitution "almost two and a half million pesos" were saved.
For 2024, UEB plans to venture into the universe of Natural and Traditional Medicine. "Taking into account the deficit of medicines that the country has today, we are talking about a good branch, for which we have the productive and technological capacities, and the trained personnel".
With pride, Domínguez Alfonso spoke of products that today come out of the entity, such as jelly for ultrasounds, "with which we are prioritizing the mother and child program".
In his enumeration, he said that they are "repackaging bicarbonate for hemodialysis, which is also one of the sensitive things that the Health sector has today".
The second point in the itinerary through the municipality of Bauta was the UEB de Dairy Products Julio Antonio Mella (better known as Balkán).
There, the instability in the supply of raw materials continues to be the greatest negative impact on production, especially when it comes to the fluid milk that is contracted to farmers.
This challenge, which is the same in other parts of the country, demands all kinds of initiatives, stimuli and paths that provide answers to the productive demands of a Cuba that has to look to its own strengths.
In the same search is immersed the Grain Research Institute, where the President talked with 38-year-old agronomist Daysbel Toledo Díaz, director of Science, Innovation and Development of the center. The topics led to the strategic purpose of guaranteeing varieties, in order to increase agricultural productions.
"In addition to rice, corn and beans, we also work with oilseeds (including soybeans, peanuts and sesame)," the engineer told the journalists who approached him, and also mentioned cereals such as sorghum and legumes such as chickpeas.
Everything the Institute does, he said, is to guarantee food for human beings, as well as animal feed.
It is a question, Daysbel said, and he had explained this to the country's management, of resistant varieties, which are obtained through breeding programs, of "varieties that are adapted to our soil and climate conditions", and which have good yields.
Our varieties," the young man affirmed, "are resistant and are validated throughout the country.
Listening to the director of the Grain Research Institute, being attentive to his sense of belonging and wealth of knowledge, the idea that Cuba needs many agronomists like Daysbel, who has continued to improve himself, will soon be a Doctor of Science, and has no doubt that the Caribbean country will find its best and most sustainable wealth within itself, emerged with total clarity yesterday.
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION IS A PERMANENT CHALLENGE FOR CUBANS
This is not the first time that Díaz-Canel shares his conviction that, together, we can move Cuba forward.
This Monday he also arrived, in the morning, to the municipality of Minas de Matahambre, in the westernmost territory of the archipelago, where he recalled that concept that has to do with a decisive variable in these times: the will of human beings.
The Head of State, during his third visit this year to Pinar del Río, emphasized the need to increase production, because that is the most direct way to reverse many of the difficulties faced by society.
If, for example, more food is produced, this will make it possible to deal blows to the inflation that affects everyone so much.
The President reflected on this idea at the Basic Cooperative Production Unit (UBPC, in Spanish) Los Burros, belonging to the Tobacco Collection and Processing Company.
Executives of the entity explained that the place, despite having closed 2023 with profits, has vast potential to increase profits: the land is only 70% exploited, and livestock is a path in which workers want and need to venture.
On his way through Minas de Matahambre, Díaz-Canel stopped to exchange with the inhabitants of the Sumidero popular council. "Together we can move the country forward," he told those present.
The same certainty that only by uniting all efforts can the problems be left behind, prevailed in the Centro de Escogida v-10-66, belonging to the Empresa de Acopio y Beneficio del Tabaco, where the President was interested in the salaries, in the obtaining of profits and in the presence of young people in the labor collective.
The third point in the tour was the UEB Silvícola Forestal Sumidero, an institution that ended the last calendar year with few profits and that, for this reason, has among its goals to diversify production, while betting on the planting of fruit trees, the extraction of resin and the production of charcoal.
There he spoke about how this 2024 must be the year "to get up". In his farewell, he was emphatic: "To you, the workers, give them the possibility to discuss. We will get ahead by working".
As usual in this kind of conferences, the tour was closed with the meeting of the country's leadership with leaders of the municipality and the province. Afterwards, there was an exchange between the President and the people who were waiting for him in the vicinity of the venue.
The Head of State spoke about "compression" on the path that goes from an unfavorable situation to success, and insisted on the importance of production. To the children of Minas, the President ratified the potentialities of the Cuban people, those born from creativity.
Regarding the enemies who recently orchestrated a media attack against the Cuban Revolution, he reasoned that those who dream of the disappearance of the Revolution, are devoid of motivation and commitment to the people and its possible successes.
"We are in a complex situation, but we are going to overcome it," he said, and again he spoke of the we, that word in which dwells the key to all synergy and triumph.
