http://www.granma.cu/cuba/2014-04-01/ariesky-un-joven-cubano-confabulado-con-la-tierra

Ariesky, a young Cuban bonded with the land

At 32, Ariesky Sánchez Cruz, an exceptional farmer of the Abel Santamaría Credits and Services Cooperative, stands out from his coworkers, regardless of their age, because of his versatile and unique aptitude to get the most out of the countryside.

Julio Martínez Molina | internet@granma.cu / April 1, 2014 (Photo: Efraín Cedeño)

A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.

LAJAS, Cienfuegos.— As a teenager, he would stand every afternoon in his porch and gaze at the idle lands near the Sánchez family’s home in La Vega, a remote spot of Lajas municipality, dreaming of the day when he would make it produce. Decree-Laws 259 and 300 helped him get his wish. A precursor of the former and continuator of the latter, the young farmer from Cienfuegos province has at his disposal over 100 acres for sugar cane and around 67 for livestock farming.

At 32, Ariesky Sánchez Cruz, an exceptional farmer of the Abel Santamaría Credits and Services Cooperative, stands out from his coworkers, regardless of their age, because of his versatile and unique aptitude to get the most out of the countryside.

“In addition to sugar cane and livestock, I have a breeding contract with the provincial Pig-Farming Industry and I’m growing chickpeas to replace imports. I think a grower must make incursions into various crops, both to produce more and prove their capabilities”.

Such is the conviction of this Lajero young man who has more than proved his own through an outstanding work in more than five caballerías of land. Ariesky’s days are divided into four parts as follows: cows, pigs, sugar cane, and chickpeas, albeit sometimes he changes the order depending on specific interests or a given situation.

“For instance, that was my priority in harvest time. I hired hands to cut more than 1,250 tons of sugar cane fresh out of the soil, with a yield of over 97 tons per every two and a half acres,” he adds.

Ariesky abides by contracts to breed pigs –he has 18 of them so far– and produce milk that is sold in La Vega and to the province’s Dairy Factory. He also has cows of the Siboney breed that feed from what he and his father sow in their fields. His contribution of 3,400 liters of milk in 2013 exceeded the production target.

Besides his father, Ariesky works with a cousin, and there are more to come in the next few years, he’s happy to say: his five-year-old son José Julián, who is as much in love with the countryside as his dad. In fact, the little child is already helping gather the heads of cattle every evening.

None of the tasks he contends with has given poor results. And he feels fine about, and has a lot more confidence in, what he does than in the beginning, he holds, when he was a bit scared and unsure of what was coming.

“In 2013 I made more than 150,000 pesos. The necessary investments notwithstanding, my standard of living is quite good, thanks to my work, my effort, my dedication, and the enactment of Decree-Law 300”, he assures.