Oxen and horses put back to work in Cuba

A lack of fuel, in large part due to the US blockade, is forcing Cubans to return to horse and ox power for farming, transport and everyday travel.

Cubans travel in a carriage in Santiago de Cuba province.

In Los Palacios, 100 kilometers (60 miles) of the west of the capital Havana, Heriberto Piloto bellows at his oxen "Montezuelo" and "Pasajero" as they plough a tobacco field at the "La Juanita" farm.

Due to a lack of fuel, Cuba resorts to animal traction to boost its agriculture and the transport of goods and people in rural areas

Once the fields were ploughed by tractors, plus some animal help, but now beasts of burden are the only option, meaning the job of ploughman has made a comeback too in Cuba's fields.

Horse carriages in Granma province, Cuba.

"Under normal conditions, we always used animals and... given the country's fuel restrictions, we've had to increase this activity," said Alfredo Reynoso, the director of the state company Cubaquivir, which provides services to the 12 agricultural cooperatives in Los Palacios.

"We need to prepare around 1,200 hectares (3,000 acres) of land with animal power during the cold season," Reynoso added.

There are neighborhoods where there are no buses, but there are carriages.

Rides cost between two and five pesos (a maximum of 20 cents).

It's not the first time that Cuba has had to revert to the use of pack and draught animals.

The government encouraged their use during the economic crisis of the 1990s that followed the break-up of the old Soviet Union, which had been Cuba's main foreign backer.

The problem is that Cuba doesn't have enough beasts to take up the strain of silenced engines.

Cuba has almost 200,000 pack animals, according to official data.

Farmers work in a field using oxen to plow the land in Los Palacios, Pinar del Rio province

Horse carriages in Granma province, Cuba

A farmer transport his oxen along a road in Granma province, Cuba

Farmers work in a field using oxen to plow the land in Los Palacios, Pinar del Rio province

Farmers work in a field using oxen to plow the land in Los Palacios, Pinar del Rio province.

Anyone would want a tractor, but it's impossible.