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GUANTANAMO, Cuba (ACN) -- Cuban first vice-president Jose Ramon Machado Ventura has called for increased food production in order to replace costly imports, particularly agricultural products that can be largely grown on the island.

Machado Ventura headed a meeting to analyze an investment project at the Caujeri Valley, a very fertile area of land that former president Fidel Castro visited on two occasions and called on workers to turn it into an agricultural garden providing “a sort of economic and social paradise.”

The first vice-president received detailed information on the benefits contributed to the ongoing agricultural project by a canal transferring fresh water from the local Sabanalamar River to a reservoir called Pozo Azul.

Machado expressed his satisfaction about the works aimed at rehabilitating and modernizing the irrigation system in the valley and he called for a rapid increase in local production to replace imports and to increase the standard of living of the rural population.

While touring facilities at a local fruit-processing plant adjoining the agricultural project, he stressed the need to have the industry, currently in an experimental stage, operate at full capacity.

The Cuban official invited executives and workers to reinforce efforts aimed at turning the plant into an industry with capacity to export its products, which would represent an important service for the country.

At the end of the visit, Machado Ventura said he will take to Fidel and Raul Castro production samples he was given in the area, since they are the major promoters of ongoing transformations in the valley.

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