Officials also are seeking to use less fuel and irrigation water, even if modifications turn out to be costly, according to Granma Internacional, which quoted agriculture vice ministers Ruben Gomez and Juan Perez.

Plant varieties should be chosen according to their resistance to disease and drought, because high winds have destroyed standing crops and irrigation systems, the National Tropical Tuber Institute told legislators this month.

The agriculture ministry in the Americas' only communist-run country supported continued planting of vegetables in urban gardens, the weekly said.

About 70 percent of the island's reservoir water is used to irrigate farms. However, Cuba's 241 reservoirs were 39 percent full at the end of May, the report said.

Cuban farmers have lacked new resources, tools and fuel since the collapse of the Soviet bloc and since 1990 increasingly have returned to draught animals.

Officials have undertaken reforestation of 22,000 hectares (54,000 acres) of watershed and replanting 50,000 hectares (124,000 acres) of riverbank.

While six of Cuba's eastern provinces suffer the worst drought in 10 years, there is a 70 percent chance that at least one hurricane will hit the island before November 30, further damaging loose, dry topsoil.

In 2001 and 2002, three hurricanes caused two billion dollars in material damage in Cuba.

The United Nations warned Wednesday that thousands of people might be at risk due to the drought afflicting and approved an aid package for the affected provinces.

The UN said it fears acute food shortages in the provinces of Holguin, Las Tunas and Camaguey, where the drought has been intense.

SPACE.WIRE