Still panting from the heat and the haste with which he had dismounted from his horse, the sixty-year-old farmer gave me exact figures for his land, even to the decimal point. He said he had 129 head of cattle, 14 of them in milking, and a production of just over five liters of milk per cow per day.

More than a year has passed since that conversation, but it comes back to me with the clarity of a movie scene. That man was a happy exception in a community in Holguín where most of the dairy farmers had a sad average.

But the memory is more insistent, because after the interview and the tour of the farm, our team went to the local government to find other data necessary for the report, but the efforts were in vain.

The official in charge of agriculture and livestock could not tell us the number of livestock farmers in the municipality, nor could he find any document in his office to answer this simple question from the press. He could not even give us an estimate!

He had only been on the job for three months» was the excuse that left a sour taste in the mouth, like curdled milk… Could it be that in a municipality with a strong agricultural and cattle-breeding vocation, the productive potential of taxing milk destined for grocery stores and industry had not been taken into account? That is why, with the exception of the farmer in question and perhaps a few others, things were as they were.

I have seen similar ignorance, which shows a lack of responsibility in the position or function being exercised, multiply to an astonishing degree in different sectors and levels, often key to fixing an economy that cannot afford forgetfulness or random accounting.

Is it possible to transform a problem that has not been properly assessed? Will it be possible to manage and direct processes in the absence of information that is essential for decision making?

Numbers, like words, tell stories, reveal trends, point the way. As we all know, information, whether quantitative or qualitative, is power. To ignore it or to invent it, especially at the grassroots level, is tantamount to being in the clouds and bringing the economy down to earth.