Cuban students work in agriculture to compensate for the lack of farmers

Yamile Ramos Cordero, first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) in Pinar del Rio, urged youth and students to participate in agricultural activities, official media Juventud Rebelde reported. .

““The youth should be pioneers in food production, which is the priority of the territory at the moment, along with the reconstruction of houses,” the party leader said. Report.

In this regard, Lérida María Sánchez Díaz, director of the Urban, Suburban and Family Agriculture Program in Pinar del Río, recognized the contribution of students, especially in urban agriculture, to compensate for the shortage of agricultural workers. Province..

“The work of the students was important because it helped to solve the problem of labor shortage in the region,” Sanchez Díaz agreed.

Labor shortages in Cuban fields

Are there so-called “schools for the countryside” in Cuba? Although the practice of sending high school students to training camps for a month or 45 days to do agricultural work is believed to have disappeared, reports from the Pinar del Rio board show that it is still maintained in a certain way. .

In the said official statement, Sánchez Díaz did not mention how long the students worked to compensate for the labor shortage in Pinar del Río’s agriculture, or whether they received any remuneration for their work.

It does not mention whether this agricultural work was compulsory or whether the students were housed in camps, as was the case in the so-called rural schools.

But the reality is that agriculture is one of the labor sectors most affected by the migrant crisis that Cuba will experience from 2021. In addition, the low wages that workers in the sector receive also encourage them to leave the job and look for other better options. Rural.