Díaz-Canel Advocates for Urban Farming in Playa to Combat Food Shortages

On Friday, Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel visited the Cubanacán Zone Defense Council (CDZ) in the Playa municipality of Havana. He urged the transformation of all available land into urban gardens to alleviate the severe food shortages affecting the Cuban population.

This visit coincided with Defense Day, a period marked by military and territorial exercises that the regime consistently uses in 2026 to push for local food production amidst the island's agricultural crisis.

According to the Cuban Presidency's website, Díaz-Canel, who also chairs the National Defense Council, emphasized utilizing the remaining vacant spaces in the area for food production by both entities and families. He noted, "There is a tradition here, but we must exploit all potential resources."

Reinier Lorenzo Reyes, the president of the CDZ Cubanacán, presented Díaz-Canel with the main issues impacting a population of over 17,000 across approximately 6.8 square kilometers. These problems include power outages, waste accumulation, water shortages, sewage overflows, and crime.

In response to these challenges, the head of state instructed the construction of water reservoirs in the most affected areas, addressed the need for cash payments to retirees, called for action against price gouging, and identified idled productive capacities in each territory for reactivation.

He also mentioned the impending arrival of trucks and containers to enhance waste collection in the municipality and stressed the importance of progressing with the 176 approved economic and social transformations from June, of which 134 already have legal backing. "There is much we can advance on," he remarked.

Díaz-Canel was accompanied by Esteban Lazo Hernández, president of the National Assembly of People's Power; Roberto Morales Ojeda, secretary of Organization of the Communist Party's Central Committee; and Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The meeting also included General Álvaro López Miera and General Lázaro Alberto Álvarez Casas, ministers of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior, respectively; Division General Amado Ricardo Guerra, secretary of the Council of Ministers; Division General Ernest Feijóo Eiró, head of the Western Army; Liván Izquierdo Alonso, president of the Provincial Defense Council, and other leaders and officers, according to the report.

Persistent Calls for Increased Food Production

Week after week, Cuban leaders reiterate the same rhetoric on food production. On August 14, Díaz-Canel visited the Roble-Chibás Defense Zone in Guanabacoa with a similar message. On the same day, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz and Vice President Salvador Valdés Mesa toured Boyeros, demanding more agricultural output.

In July, Marrero urged planting in Arroyo Naranjo, declaring, "You have the land," while the food crisis deepened with no signs of resolution.

Cuba produces only about 111,000 tons of rice annually, against a demand of 600,000, and imports between 70% and 80% of its food, costing nearly $2 billion each year.

A Food Monitor Program survey presented in May revealed that one in three Cuban households had at least one member who went to bed hungry in the month preceding the study, a figure 9.3 percentage points higher than in 2024.

The Communist Party itself acknowledged in late 2024 that "the results we achieve today do not meet the population's needs," an admission that has not halted the decline nor led to structural reforms capable of reversing it.