Fuel shortages push Cuban farm back to oxen

A severe energy crisis in Cuba is changing how some farms work, with farmer Alexander Quesada now using oxen to plow at Finca Burgambilia, an organic farm west of Havana, while a tractor he received from the government sits unused.

Quesada, 52, built the eight-hectare farm in Caimito, in Artemisa province, after turning a former rubbish dump into productive land. During a period of improved Cuba-U.S. relations about a decade ago, he said the rise in tourism helped bring restaurant buyers to the farm for products such as salad rocket. He said income from those sales helped support other crops and allowed him to expand into activities including organic honey.

The farm's situation has worsened since a U.S. fuel blockade imposed in January under President Donald Trump, the report said. The measure added pressure to Cuba's energy crisis and to a weakened tourism industry. Homes and businesses have faced blackouts lasting up to 70 hours, and diesel now costs more than $3 a liter, about half the average monthly public-sector wage. Quesada has replaced salad rocket with lower-cost crops such as yuca and sweet potato, but said the farm is barely breaking even and is in decline.

The report described wider problems for Cuban agriculture. Farmers in the area have cut production or stopped planting because of shortages of subsidized fertilizer, seeds, fuel and electricity for irrigation pumps. Farm worker Raul Castillo Rodriguez said the current hardship is worse than the crisis Cuba calls the Special Period in the 1990s. Jose Joaquin Rodriguez, a farmer from Cuba's southwest coast, said farmers face obstacles from several levels of government when trying to obtain land.

Cuba imports nearly all the food it consumes, including eggs, and the state has less money to import goods and resell them at subsidized prices. The government last month announced plans to privatize parts of the economy. Land will mostly remain public property, but farmers are expected to gain the right to cultivate larger areas indefinitely and create companies. Cooperatives are to be allowed to import and export directly, and price controls are to be lifted.

Farmers have broadly welcomed the reforms, but the report said many see little relief while U.S. sanctions remain. Ricardo Torres, a Cuban economist and research fellow at American University in Washington, said the outlook for small farmers is mixed, with better-capitalized farmers likely to benefit while others face a harder transition. Rodriguez said he feared wealthier private investors would be better placed to import supplies and gain control over land use.