Corrections

It's taken nearly five decades but the Castro regime has finally admitted that its Soviet-style system of centralised decision-making in the agriculture sector has been a huge failure.

Not that the regime has actually used the word failure, of course.

To do so would mean having to publicly admit that the now semi-retired Fidel Castro was wrong - really wrong! - and as we all know, Fidel Castro is never, ever wrong.

Instead, the official media has dressed up the announcement as a way of "improving production" and reducing imports.

Under the changes, control of agriculture will shift from faceless bureaucrats and Communist Party apparatchiks in Havana to more than 150 specially-convened local councils.

According to this report, the local councils will have enough autonomy to make decisions on what to plant, when and where - you know, much like farmers are supposed to.

The regime's propaganda newsheet, Granma, said that relying on local campesinos to make more of these decisions would "stimulate agricultural production, perfect its sale and increase the availability of food and, in this way, substitute imports."