Cuban farmers are celebrating this Wednesday 64th anniversary of the signing of the First Agrarian Reform Law by which the rights of that sector of the national economy was vindicated.
The signing of that document by Fidel Castro at Rebel Army general command in La Plata, Sierra Maestra mountain range on May 17, 1959, radically changed the ownership of land in the country, giving it to thousands of peasants who had been working for years, for the benefit of a group of large landowners.
The Agrarian Reform and a series of measures taken by the new Cuban government marked the beginning of the country’s economic recovery, which plunged into rural precariousness due to the obsolete production systems.
In that historical context and due to the organization’s results in the Cuban countryside, the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP) was founded on a similar date in 1961.
President Miguel Díaz-Canel recognized the role of that agricultural force in satisfying the population’s needs and reducing dependence on foreign markets through the proper use of their lands.
