Ranchuelo, Villa Clara.- This is the fifth municipality in the country that Díaz-Canel has visited this week and the fifth in the province that he has visited this year, as part of the Party leadership’s work system to permanently maintain exchanges with the people and to examine in detail the work carried out in economic and social centers.
Bringing science closer to the furrow is a priority for the specialists and workers of the Sugar Cane Research Institute (INICA) in Villa Clara, a scientific center that will celebrate its 40th anniversary next September.
The entity has among its workers a critical mass of seven doctors in science, ten master’s degrees in science, several specialists pursuing master’s degrees and university students who do their internships in specific projects developed by the institution and that they must continue throughout their career until the preparation of their final theses.
The First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party and President of the Republic began his tour of the INICA in Villa Clara, who pointed out that this is an inspiring place, although he criticized the enormous potential for science and innovation that is stored here and systematically increased. , is not used adequately by the sugarcane system.
Doctor of Science Irenaldo Delgado Mora, director of the institution, explained that the traditional objective of obtaining sugarcane varieties resistant to pests and diseases that most affect the grass in Cuba, as well as the recovery of sugarcane varieties such as Jaranú through biotechnological techniques, has also been diversified, for the benefit of the center’s finances, for sugarcane production, as well as for the permanent improvement of its scientific staff.
INICA in Villa Clara is the only institution in AZCUBA that currently has a biofactory for the development of sugarcane seeds using these techniques, a strength that they also use to obtain banana vitroplants, flowers, protein plants, seedlings of trees such as cedar, among other species, in conjunction with research centers in the area, including those of Biocubafarma.
The diversification process not only finances the institute’s activities; It allows bringing the results of science and technology to producers, although the positive economic results have not been able to reach even more favorable levels.
The average salary of its more than one hundred workers barely exceeds four thousand pesos, and that of the researchers reaches just over six thousand, very low income for a scientific center that can contribute, and provides, so much in science and innovation.
The results of the Villa Clara INICA in sugarcane varieties and other vitroplants have to be used more by AZCUBA and agriculture, Díaz-Canel insisted when exchanging with leaders of research projects, some of them Academy Award winners. “Everything that has been achieved here is important, nothing that has been obtained here is disposable,” the President emphasized.
Photo 1. Photo: Revolución Studies
The Ramiro Lavandero Cruz cigarette factory, one of the industries that has been the center of the town’s economic activity for more than a century, was the second point on Díaz-Canel’s tour of the municipality, together with Humberto Camilo Hernández, head of the Cadre Policy Department of the Central Committee; Osnay Miguel Colina Rodríguez; first secretary of the provincial committee of the Party in Villa Clara; Milaxy Yanet Sánchez Armas, governor of the territory, and the main authorities of the municipality.
Momentarily stopped due to difficulties in final processing areas, the factory does not stop the preparation of the pit, because it has not lacked raw materials so far this year.
With more than 300 workers, many of them women, the Ranchuelo cigarette factory has achieved sustained profits, to the point that it pays an average of 10,072 pesos per month per worker, an incentive that, in addition to the sense of belonging of its workers, , has allowed them to maintain high job stability.
Populares, Criollos and Titanes are the cigarette brands that come out of this emblematic factory, whose “seal of origin”, Ranchuelo, has always been well regarded by smokers of ordinary black cigarettes.
The industry’s old machines continue to function thanks to the contributions of ANIR members, whose innovations ensure that its 20 twisting machines are systematically up and running, with 18 working and two in reserve.
The President visited each part of a classic Cuban tobacco factory, whose production chain begins on the third floor, where the leaf is prepared for cutting, and ends on the ground floor, with the wrapping machines. In several areas he greeted and talked with the workers, whom he urged to continue working for their own good, for the good of the municipality, the province and the country.
Photo 2. Photo: Revolution Studios
District No. 16 of the Ranchuelo-Jagua popular council, a community in transformation, was another of the places visited by the Head of State. At the House of Grandparents, where 25 elderly men and women from the neighborhood are cared for from early morning until late afternoon, he learned about the work carried out in a district where more than 200 elderly people live.
It was a neighborhood with social and infrastructural difficulties; the revival has allowed the vitality and aesthetics of the two wineries, the medical office, the mental health center that the municipality has here to be restored, among other material actions, but the most important thing has been to raise the self-esteem of its people and actively incorporate them into social work.
The actions have thus been extended to the incorporation of more than thirty young people disengaged from study or work; to the care of twenty vulnerable families, to whom resources such as sheets, towels, and household goods have been provided; and five single mothers with three or more children. But the most important thing, said Daylin Elizabeth Machado García, delegate of the constituency, is that the community has joined everything that is done here for the collective good.
Photo 3: Revolution Studios
The President’s morning work session, held today in Villa Clara, concluded with a critical exchange with Party cadres, administrators and other leaders of the municipality and the province.
The debate on municipal budget deficits was extensive, and along with it, or among its primary causes, tax evasion by non-state economic actors; the high prices; and banking, which has not advanced as much as it should, explained Díaz-Canel when later exchanging with more than a hundred ranchueleros who were waiting for him on the promenade that stands in front of the municipal committee of the Party.
We discussed, he informed them, food production and how to better market it and thus lower prices, which requires – he reflected – greater state procurement. Problems with the water supply in the municipality, roads, housing, the production of construction materials and other issues that require the intervention of the municipality and the province, but also of national entities and organizations, were also analyzed, he pointed out.
Acting like this, Díaz-Canel reflected, we can go to another moment, with the conviction that we can get ahead with our own effort and with our own talent, but for that, he emphasized, what we have to do is work.
