
Cubans have been forced to return to using horse and oxen power for farming, travel and transport, largely due to a US blockade on fuel.

In Los Palacios, 60 miles 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.

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.

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

Farmers work in a field using oxen to plow the land in Los Palacios, Pinar del Rio province, on October 30, 2019

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

A Cuban family ride a horse carriage in Granma province, on November 15, 2019. Bus services in the country have been slashed due to the lack of fuel

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

A thousand miles to the east, long, straight roads flanked by sugarcane fields lead to Havana.

There, 'Dragau' and 'Abre Campo' pull an ox cart driven by Felix Betancourt, a 65-year-old bringing food to field workers.

'I bring food to cooperative workers: breakfast, lunch. It works well, it saves a lot of things (including) fuel, given that there is none any more,' said Betancourt.

'The animals' fuel is grass. In the evening I given them food, leave them to sleep well, then I get up the next morning and put them to work at 5:30 am.'

Cubans travel in a carriage in Santiago de Cuba province, rides cost between two and five pesos (a maximum of 20 cents)

In recent weeks, garbage disposal has been carried out by carts pulled by animals - Here a man can be seen travelling on a oxen drawn cart with his bicycle

Once a tourist attraction the horses are now an integral part of transport in the country. A sign depicts Cuban late leader Fidel Castro and First Secretary of the Communist Party, former President Raul Castro, reaidng 'Now we did win!'

In the eastern city of Bayamo, horse-drawn carriages have long been a tourist attraction - today they've become an integral part of the public transport system.

'Carriages have always been used in Bayamo, but now they're being used a bit more,' said Silvia Diaz, a neighborhood leader.

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

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

In recent weeks, garbage disposal has been carried out by carts pulled by animals.

'It's helping to keep the neighborhood clean and avoids fuel expenses,' she said.

US sanctions against Cuba and its main source of oil, socialist ally Venezuela, forced the island nation to operate with just 30 percent of its fuel needs in September.

October was better but still Cuba had only 60 percent of its requirements.

A farmer holds a oxen harness used to pull the plough as he works in a field in Los Palacios, Pinar del Rio province, on October 30, 2019

The oxen work two by two to drag a plough through the soil which has been baked hard by the sun. This process must be done to ensure new crops can germinate and grow when sowed

Due to the heat the animals are usually worked after the sun has passed the mid-point in the sky. A farmer is seen attaching the horns of the oxen to a plough

There are not enough working animals to go around as Cubans move to the traditional power source

Jorge Luis La Guardia, the 50-year-old president of one of Los Palacios' agricultural cooperatives said: 'You can't say that the lack of fuel hasn't been felt'.

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.

Los Palacios has 780 pairs of oxen, 'insufficient' to meet the city's needs, according to Reynoso.

'We're transporting 100 percent of the farmers' food to the population by pack animals, with oxen and carts, horse gigs and horse-drawn carriages,' said La Guardia.

A man rides a horse carriage in front of a billboard depicting Cuban late leader Fidel Castro, First Secretary of the Communist Party Raul Castro and Cuban President Miguel Diaz Canel, reading 'The Cuban Revolution goes on' in Ciego de Avila province, Cuba, on November 13, 2019

View of horse carriages in Granma province, Cuba, on November 15, 2019. A statue intended to remember days gone by can be seen in the distance

A car crosses paths with a man riding his horse while holding another on a bridle. Cuba has many classic cars due to a ban on the import of cars after the Cuban revolution in 1959, this was lifted in 2011 however the car import market is tightly controlled

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

Back in the fields, weighing in at more than 600 kilograms each, 'Montezuelo' and 'Pasajero' follow 54-year-old Piloto's orders.

'The technique is to get up early, and at around 10-something or 11 am, if it's a hot morning, you let the ox loose, give it food, and then at 4-something in the afternoon, you put them back to work,' said Piloto, his skin weather-beaten.

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

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

The rudimentary plough that is used to work the land. Rural areas of cuba have been most affected. A growing middle class has been able to pay more for its fuel consumption