Cuba lifts ban on farmers buying supplies

By Marc Frank

HAVANA (Reuters) - Communist Cuba has lifted a ban on some farmers buying supplies in the latest sign that new President Raul Castro is looking to individual initiative to stimulate food production.

Agricultural sources told Reuters on Monday that Cuba will soon open stores for farmers to buy tools, herbicides, boots and other supplies for the first time since the state took over all the country's shops in the 1960s.

"It's like a birthday party around here. All the members of the cooperative are very happy," the wife of a dairy farmer said in a telephone interview.

Raul Castro has raised hopes for economic change since becoming Cuba's first new leader in nearly half a century when he took over as president from his sick brother, Fidel Castro, on February 24.

Few analysts expect a radical political departure from the one-party state but many predict he will pursue measures to make the creaking state-run economy more efficient.

Cuban farmers complain the cumbersome state-run system does not work, leaving crops to rot and farmers without timely supplies such as animal feed, resulting in poor land use.

Milk producers in state and private cooperatives, as well as private dairy farmers, will initially gain access to the stores. It was not clear whether nondairy farmers would be able to do so, but they believe so and were delighted.

"It has been hard to find supplies and for cattle you need wire and a machete. Now things are changing, and I see that as very good," said Carlos Manuel Fernandez, a 62-year-old farmer who raises cows on the Havana outskirts.