HAVANA (Commodity Online) : Cuba will cooperate with Vietnam to boost its rice production which had fallen off late.
Vietnamese-Cuban cooperation project to promote rice growing in Cuba provides for technology transfer to the Grain Research Institute (IIGranos).
Training course on rice cultivation techniques lectured by Vietnamese experts opened in the Cuban western province of Pinar del Rio on Sept. 20.
During the course, Vietnamese experts will introduce Cuban farmers techniques in rice production from cultivation and irrigation to care.
The course is part of a cooperation programme to promote rice production in Cuban between the two countries, which also brought Vietnamese specialists to other seven provinces of Cuba . The programme is scheduled to go on until 2015.
Latin American nation has around 6.6 million hectares of arable land but only 2.9 million hectares under cultivation. Especially, since the beginning of the year, climate change and droughts have seriously affected food security in Cuba.
Vietnam will also assist Cuba to develop its rice varieties. Cuba is one of Vietnam’s rice importers with a volume of around 400,000 tons per year.
