Transcript of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's speech as prepared for delivery at the Republican National Convention:

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The plant is part of an investment carried out in the dual-currency system.

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Cuba with unions support announces elimination of 500.000 jobs to boost economy The Cuban government will cut more than 500,000 state jobs by March as part of a plan to reduce inefficiencies, the country’s largest union said in a statement. The reductions are part of President Raúl Castro’s goal of eliminating 1 million state jobs by 2015, according to the statement.

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Fidel Castro told a visiting American journalist that Cuba's communist economic model doesn't work, a rare comment on domestic affairs from a man who has conspicuously steered clear of local issues since stepping down four years ago.

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More government land to Cuban small farmers to help boost food production The Cuban government has awarded in usufruct over a million hectares to small farmers one of the main reforms promoted by President Raúl Castro to help the country’s economy recover from its deep recession and cut the huge imported food bill that conditions Cuban international reserves.

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The latest report from the National Office of Statistics (ONE) showed a steep increase in the amount of cattle cooperatives sold to the government, jumping almost 50 per cent, representing 3,842 tons of beef, reports The Cuba News Agency. This didn’t affect milk production which also grew to over 215 million litters in this period, with the government sector’s output standing for 15 per cent. Despite last year´s drought and the lack of cattle feed due to the reduction of imports, a four percent growth was achieved.

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Cash-strapped Cuba has continued to slash agricultural purchases from the U.S. even as a key bill that would ease Washington's Cuban travel ban and make it easier to sell more food to the island works its way through Congress, according to a report released Thursday.

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Cuba for the first time names agronomist as Minister of Agriculture Cuba has removed General Ulises Rosales Toro as agricultural minister and made him a technical adviser for the island's sugar, agricultural and food production industries. A government statement Saturday characterized the move as a promotion for Rosales. He remains a member of the powerful Politburo.

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The first multipurpose plant to produce animal feed for farms in the Cuban province of Las Tunas, began operating in the southern municipality of Amancio. The new plant can manufacture various types of feed mixtures for various species of animals, and will enable Cuba to save some of the expensive imports made in this field.

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Cuban Sugar Crop Worst in a Century; Brazilian Investors Could Take over Industry The current sugar harvest is Cuba’s worst since 1905, according to Communist Party daily Granma. The news comes two days after President Raúl Castro fired the minister responsible for the area amid increasing rumours that foreign investors will be invited to take over the industry.

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Cuba Fires Ministers, Considers Opening Sugar Industry to Foreign Investors Cuban President Raúl Castro replaced two high-level government ministers citing errors and incompetence, in the latest round of replacements at top-level government posts. There are also signs that Cuba might turn the sugar industry to foreign investment. Sugar Minister Luis Manuel Ávila González was fired after requesting his release because of admitted shortcomings in his own performance, according to an official statement published Tuesday in the country's state-run newspaper. Orlando Celso García Ramírez will replace him, it said.

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Agricultural exports to Cuba declined by more than $180 million in 2009, down from a record $715 million in exports set in 2008, according to a Texas AgriLife Extension Service economist. The decline was a result of a number of factors, including the U.S. recession, which restricted money flowing from Cuban Americans back home, lower nickel prices, a slowdown in tourism to Cuba and restrictions on payment terms used by US exporters, said Dr Parr Rosson, AgriLife Extension economist and director of the Center for North American Studies at Texas A&M University.

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Cuban farmers are pressing for greater autonomy to produce and sell their crops, blaming government inefficiency for Cuba’s falling food output despite agricultural reforms introduced by President Raúl Castro. In meetings around the country, they have complained that the communist government is not providing the inputs they need and has failed in its basic role of getting their produce to market, according to meeting participants and media reports.

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Fifty years ago, 60 percent of Cuba’s food imports came from the United States. Trying to regain that market, in late February Minnesota Rep. Collin Peterson, along with 30-some co-sponsors, introduced the “Travel Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act (H.R. 4645),” a bill that would remove restrictions on U.S. agricultural sales and travel to Cuba.

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National Farmers Union (NFU) President Roger Johnson testified today before the House Committee on Agriculture concerning a review of U.S. agricultural sales to Cuba. In his testimony, Johnson expressed NFU’s support of the Travel Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act (H.R. 4645), the bi-partisan legislation sponsored by House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson and co-sponsored by 30 other Members of Congress, including Representatives Jerry Moran of Kansas, Rosa L. DeLauro of Connecticut, and Jo Ann Emerson of Missouri. “I have personally led eight trade-related missions to Cuba,” said Johnson. “I can speak from firsthand experience on the importance of ending the Cuban embargo and establishing trade relations with Cuba in an effort to better the U.S. agriculture market.”

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The American Soybean Association and the National Corn Growers Association both are backing legislation introduced by House Ag Committee Chairman Collin Peterson that would expand U.S. agriculture exports to Cuba

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The government of Cuba, chronically poor and forced to import most of its food, is fighting back by going green

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U.S. agricultural sales to Cuba dropped 26 percent in 2009. John Kavulich with the U.S.-Cuba Economic Trade Council says sales fell from $710 million in 2008 to $528 million last year due to the economic downturn and he doesn’t expect things to turn around in 2010

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Initiatives and sustained efforts by those who work in the aquaculture sector in Camaguey, meant that the province recorded high levels of catches, with over 5,000 tonnes of fish

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Cuban farmer Saudiel Lazaro wears a broad smile under his wide-brimmed hat as he prepares two young oxen to plow fields newly leased as part of state agricultural reforms

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USA to lift farm trade restriction - The Senate approved a provision on Sunday to facilitate cash sales of U.S. farm goods to Cuba, overturning restrictions by former President George W. Bush's administration, a senator said.

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South Africa has a critical SHORTAGE of veterinarians and may soon start recruiting them from Cuba. Minister of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) Tina Joemat-Pettersson recently confirmed there were 85 vacant positions for state veterinarians.

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The presence of Ernesto Che Guevara in Cuba was “the worst that could have happened to my country” said Juanita Castro, sister of the ruling brothers of Cuba, (Fidel and Raúl Castro) and fellow fighters with the Argentine-born doctor in the Caribbean island revolution half a century agoJuanita said she does not regret having collaborated with the US intelligence services (CIA) since 1961, when she still lived in revolutionary Havana, capital of Cuba. When the leaders of the 1959 Cuban revolution turned to communism “I had only two options to follow: Cuba, my motherland, or my brothers”, said Ms. Castro. The Castro brothers “declared war on us who believed in democracy” and who had supported the revolution; “they simply betrayed us”, said Juanita.

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Just as USW Director of Policy Rebecca Bratter was arriving in Havana as part of a multi-party U.S. trade delegation, word came this week that farm state legislators will soon push hard to open trade with Cuba.

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The government of Cuba and Russia signed an agreement on establishment of a joint venture in the field of fisheries, according to Russian media, RIA News. "The agreement

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One of the major ills of Cuba’s state-run agricultural enterprises is “the excess of non-productive personnel,” Communist Party daily Granma said this week. The newspaper estimated the number of redundant employees in the state farming sector at 89,000, or 26% of the total. “The urgency to increase production of food and reduce imports has accelerated the solution of this old program, which engenders bureaucracy, raises costs, hampers productivity, creates disorder and prevents the worker from improving his income,” Granma said. Among the measures adopted by the Agriculture Ministry is setting the goal of eliminating at least 10% of the superfluous jobs and halving the number of managers, the daily said.

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The American Soybean Association reports that legislation to expand agricultural trade to Cuba will be introduced by Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, Representative Jerry Moran, Agriculture Appropriations Chair Rosa DeLauro , and Representative Jo Ann Emerson. The American Soybean Association has been a supporter of eliminating the Cuban sanctions.

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Cuba is planning to increase rum exports to Russia up to 450,000 liters per year, said the vice-president of one of the largest Cuban rum producers Cuba Ron Juan Gonzalez.

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"The new vaccine against the A(H1N1) virus, which has begun being administered in more developed countries, is highly effective, but also very expensive," said Health Minister Luis Estruch. "Our country is

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Biorigin, specialized in the development of innovative solutions based on yeasts and their derivates, will present the most recent innovations in animal nutrition in the Latin American Congress 2009, in CubaFollowing the strategy adopted in 2009, Biorigin

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Extension of US trade embargo on Cuba, “disappoints” Brazil and Latinamerica President Barack Obama decision to extend for another twelve months the 47-year-long US trade embargo on Cuba has “disappointed” Brazil and Latinamerica” said President Lula da Silva’s

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Gov. Mike Beebe will headline a group of lawmakers, economic development officials and business leaders seeking to sow seeds for future Arkansas agricultural exports to Cuba in a three-day trip next week. Cuba has been under

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Castro announces second belt tightening and calls on Cubans to work the land On the 56th anniversary of the start of the Cuban Revolution, the message from President Raul Castro was not at all celebratory: the country must prepare for a second round of belt tightening because of the global financial crisis and promoting agriculture and food production

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Cuban Oil: Havana’s Potential Geo-Political Bombshell

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Buffaloes introduced in Cuba have become a threat for crops

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A new kind of tilapia, genetically improved, is being introduced in Cuba by the National Fishery Distributing Industry in order to increase fish supplies for the population.

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The Cuban government has threatened with cutting power to companies and entities that do not comply with the “exceptional measures” which become effective Monday to save fuel and help the rapidly deteriorating island’s economy, aggravated by the current global financial crisis.

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The task force created by the Organization of American States, OAS, in an attempt to bridge different members’ proposals to consider the readmission of Cuba seems to have stalled with the main actors clearly underlining their stance.

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Cuba is desperate to promote agriculture.

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Measures to promote the “attachment to farms” and discourage the exodus of peasants to the cities thus helping Cuba achieve self sufficiency in food production, was demanded in Sunday’s edition of the official newspaper from the Union of Communist Youths, Juventud Rebelde

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Political divergences impeded the Organization of American States, (OAS) Permanent Council from officially debating for the first time since 1962, the possible re-entry of Cuba to the inter-American system.At the council’s plenary session this week

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A bipartisan group of senators, many from states that would benefit by bolstering agricultural exports to Cuba, introduced a bill today that would ease trade and travel restrictions to the Communist-governed island.

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