With a deep rumble, the massive threshing wheel of the rice harvester pushes through the tightly packed green stalks. The plants vanish into the belly of the machine, where rice grains are separated from their husks and the straw is tossed back onto the field. A few workers watch the process from the field's edge. After a few rounds, the combine harvester moves to the side and transfers the harvested rice through a long pipe into the bed of a waiting truck — then it heads back out again. It's harvest time on the fields of Los Palacios, a sleepy small town in the southeastern part of Cuba's Pinar del Rio province. A harvester unloading rice onto a truck in a field.A harvester unloading rice onto a truck in a field. This summer, Cuban farmers harvested the first Vietnamese rice grown on their islandImage: Andreas Knobloch The silos and an aging rice mill shimmer in the glaring sun on the horizon, and what looks like a picturesque postcard scene could prove crucial for Cuba's food security. The fields near Los Palacios belong to the Cubanacan farm, run by the state-owned enterprise Empresa Agroindustrial de Granos Los Palacios. In the wake of Fidel Castro's successful Communist revolution in 1959, all foreign landowners were expropriated. But last year, the Cuban government took an unprecedented step by granting a foreign company the right to cultivate farmland on the Communist islands. The first foreign company to be granted a lease on a stretch of farmland was Vietnamese Agri VMA, a privately held agriculture company that is growing rice near Los Palacios. Cuban rice output declines amid deeper crisis Still owned by the Cuban state, the farmland lease to the Vietnamese investor is tied to a prolonged crisis in the Cuban agricultural sector caused by an overall decline in the country's economy. Fertilizers, pesticides, fuel, and spare parts are in short supply and much of the equipment is outdated or broken. In addition, a rigid system of mandatory state quotas offers little incentive for enhancing production. What's also come into play recently are environmental factors, such as soil salinization, drought, and hurricanes, which have reduced crops driving Cuban agriculture even closer to the brink of collapse. A closeup picture of Ariel Garcia Perez standinmg in a green rice field.A closeup picture of Ariel Garcia Perez standinmg in a green rice field. Ariel Garcia Perez oversees the pilot project for the Cuban sideImage: Andreas Knobloch Ariel Garcia Perez, general director of Empresa Agroindustrial de Granos, concedes that his company is currently lacking the kind of resources needed for cultivating rice. "I mean fertilizers, herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, and also seeds — all essential for rice production," he told the DW reporter out on one of the company's rice fields that were being harvested. Perez said that due to the shortages only about 6,000 hectares (14,826 acres) of rice fields are currently being cultivated, out of about 23,000 hectares that the company could cultivate in total. Rice is one of Cuba's staple foods. Last year, the country produced about 80,000 tons of rice — just over 11% of its domestic demand. Six years ago, production was more than three times higher, according to official data published by the Cuban state newspaper Granma recently. To meet domestic consumption, Cuba has had to increase imports. Optimizeed seeds and better know how Under efforts to spur the domestic rice output, the Cuban government has asked Vietnam for help because the two countries have maintained friendly relations for decades, intensifying especially agricultuiral cooperation in recent years. For Perez, the Los Palacios project marks a entirely new level of partnership though. Privetely owned Agri VMA is managing the lease largely independent from state interference, with operations being based on a business contract. The company has brought to Cuba its own resources, technical experts, and seeds from hybrid rice varieties developed in Vietnam. Battered by ongoing US sanctions and, more recently, the collapse of tourism during the COVID-19 pandemic, Cuba is lacking the foreign currency reserves needed for such investments. The Vietnamese company has directly hired 40 Cuban workers for the undertaking — another first in a country where employment is typically mediated by state-run agencies. The rest of the farm workers needed are being provided by his company, says Perez. "We, as a Cuban company, provide services to the Vietnamese company. They pay us for working the land, harvesting the rice, drying it, and milling it." Tran Trong Pai wearing a khaki uniform and standing in a rice field