AR-News: (Cuba) Disturbing picture:Farmers count cost of Cuba's drought

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

MSNBC
Worst in memory; formerly fertile land near Holguin unrecognizable
 
Felipe Leon / NBC News
Starving cow in the Holguin region of Cuba. Up to 90 head of cattle are dying 
a day as a result of the crippling drought.

By Mary Murray
Producer
NBC News
Updated: 11:22 a.m. ET June 22, 2004
HOLGUIN, Cuba - Miguel Baez, 77, has farmed the land here his whole life, but 
Cuba’s rural heartland is no longer what he remembers.
The fields were so fertile, he boasted, they could grow enough sugar to 
sweeten every cup of coffee in the world. There was enough crops and cattle to make 
a man rich and a nation fat.
Now, after a 15-year drought, the land looks like the handiwork of arson — as 
if someone took a torch and set fire to all the pastures and meadows in sight.
Driving along the Central Highway, just 20 minutes outside the provincial 
capital of Holgiun, the devastation is inescapable. 
The air is as dry as the acres of sunburnt sugar stalks snapping in the wind. 
Shriveled cattle pick through a few brittle weeds poking through the rocks. 
Bridges rise over dried streams and rivers of stones.

Cuba’s Civil Defense has placed the entire zone under a state of alert, which 
means some government relief. Caravans of trucks bring water every day for 
both the people and the livestock. 
Drought has spared humans, cattle haven’t been so lucky
Ninety head of cattle are dying a day, robbing the area of much of its dairy. 
“The cows once gave milk. Now, all they give is misery,” Baez said.
Since January, the drought consumed close to 4,000 acres of Holguin’s best 
grazing land, forcing farmers to sacrifice for food more than 13,200 cattle too 
weak to stay alive. They scramble to save the survivors.
Legna Ravelo, 28, is the chief veterinarian for the Jose Merceron UBPC, the 
largest dairy farm in the town of Calixto Garcia. She hasn’t seen any real rain 
in nine months so her cattle are dying at almost triple the natural rate. 
“Most starve to death. Others die from infectious diseases or an ailment 
caused from stress related to hunger.”






full story:
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5263948/ 
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