Thu Oct 9, 2008
By Marc Frank
HAVANA (Reuters) - Communist Cuba has begun leasing land to private farmers, cooperatives and state companies for the first time in decades in a step forward for one of President Raul Castro's main economic reforms, official media said this week.
The move could not come at a better time, local economists said, as the country struggles with food shortages after hurricanes Ike and Gustav devastated crops last month.
"First parcels of vacant land handed over in Granma" said a headline in Demajagua, the Communist party newspaper for the southeastern province of Granma. http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-Cuba/idUSTRE4987HV20081009?sp=true