By IANS/EFE,
Havana : Cuba plans to enlarge to 40,000 hectares a Vietnam-aided effort to expand production of rice, official media said Monday.
Given the positive results of the joint project, a new phase is currently being analyzed, according to an agriculture ministry official cited by the state news agency Prensa Latina.
Up to now the programme has had “concrete results in the areas of demonstration, consultation and production”, the head of the Vietnamese part of the project, Bui Van Duong, said.
Bilateral cooperation in this field was launched in 2002, first in the eastern province of Granma and then was extended to other areas on the island.
Vietnam is the chief supplier of rice to Cuba, according to government officials.
Cuba must import more than 400,000 tonnes of rice annually, 60 percent of the total amount consumed by inhabitants of the island, where the grain is a fundamental part of the daily diet.
Each of Cuba’s 11.2 million residents consumes an average of 11 pounds of rice per month, or more than 60 kg a year per person, or roughly 600,000 tonnes, according to official figures.