Havana, July 16 -- Under Cuba's blazing sun, Vietnamese rice expert Tran Thi Tham stood amid a sea of golden fields, eyeing the hefty rice stalks - her hard-fought victory alongside local farmers battling fuel shortages, power cuts, and outdated farming practices.

"Seeing these fields, heavy with grain and beautiful as a painting, with yields surpassing past seasons, I knew we had done something meaningful," Tham said.

Tham is part of a 15-member Vietnamese crew working for the final year of the fifth phase of a Vietnam-Cuba rice production project. Landing in Havana in November 2024 after a 30-hour flight, they were greeted with an airport plunged into darkness by a power outage, with immigration officers processing paperwork by flashl...