Outside Havana, a combine belonging to a private Vietnamese company is harvesting rice, directly farming Cuban land -- in a first -- to help address acute food shortages in the country.

The Cuban government has granted Agri VAM, a subsidiary of Vietnam's Fujinuco Group, 1,000 hectares (2,470 acres) of arable land in Los Palacios, 118 kilometers (73 miles) west of the capital.

Vietnam has advised Cuba on rice cultivation in the past but this is the first time a private firm has done the farming itself.

The government approved the move after a 52 percent plunge in overall agricultural production between 2018 and 2023, according to data from the Center for the Study of the Cuban Economy at the University of Havana.

The rice numbers are even worse. Total rice production dropped from 300,00

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