Cuba is to close more than 100 state farms by the end of the year.

Cuban Agricultural Minister Ulises Rosales del Toro announced the mass closure of the loss-making farms as part of extensive reforms in the agricultural sector.

There will be alternative work for the 40,000 people, who will lose their jobs.

The communist country wants to make farming more efficient to increase food production. At the moment Cuba is dependent on imports for 80 percent of its food. The authorities want to bring this figure down.

Cuba has been hit by the worst economic crisis since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.