Havana, March 22 (RHC-PL), --  In Havana on Monday, Cuba and the United States signed a memorandum of understanding on Agriculture, aimed at cooperating in supporting advances in commerce, productivity and food security.

The document was signed by the Minister of Agriculture, Gustavo Rodriguez Rollero, and the US Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, Thomas Vilsak, who agreed that this agreement shows the interest of both governments to work towards the normalization of bilateral relations.

This instrument is also aimed at backing food security, the sustainable management of natural resources and the protection of territories against the introduction and spread of plagues and diseases affecting the plants, animals and the environment, based on mutual benefit and equality.

It is also aimed at making the best use of the agricultural and forest sectors in the two nations, both in terms of the reserves of natural resources and of facilitating comprehensive cooperation related to the agriculture and food, agricultural science, technology, the environment and trade.

The text takes as starting point the visit to Cuba paid by Vilsack in November, when he could see the effort of the farmers and the members of cooperatives and all rural men and women to make the land produce in spite of the effect, due to the blockade, of the lack of the most modern technologies to aid production, said Rodriguez Rollero.

The US Secretary of Agriculture said that the blockade is a barrier to full collaboration, and Obama's visit is a message that shows the need to lift it.

“With this memorandum, we begin a path towards collaboration, which will surely have hurdles, but we will achieve mutual benefit of Cuban and US growers,” he said.