Jamaica Gleaner News - Cuba hands out 45,000 land parcels to farmers - Wednesday

Cuba has distributed more than 45,000 parcels of unused state land to private farmers and other citizens, asking them to revitalise an agriculture sector crippled by decades of government mismanagement, state news media said Monday.

The government had received 96,416 requests for fallow state land as of January 22, encompassing more than 1.6 million acres (658,000 hectares), Deputy Agriculture Minister Alcides Lopez told provincial legislators, according to the Communist Party newspaper Granma.

A total of 45,518 of those requests were approved, the newspaper added, without specifying the total amount of land turned over.

Under an agriculture-reform program started in September, the state retains its title to the land but leases it to approved individual farmers, cooperatives and other Cubans who want to try farming.

Landless Cubans can apply for about 33 acres (13 hectares), while established farmers can increase current holdings to 100 acres (40 hectares). Private citizens qualify for leases of up to 10 years, renewable for 10 more, while cooperatives and companies can seek 25-year renewable terms.