Las Tunas.- The use of quality seeds, organic matter in crops and the introduction of technology through science and innovation in food production were essential topics of the meeting today between experts from various scientific and academic institutes with producers from the municipality of Manatí, in the north of Las Tunas.
As part of the project Strengthening the resilience of the local food system to natural disasters and climate change, with a nutritional focus to supply food to social protection networks, Koika, the Science to the Furrow caravan, also had the coordination of the World Food Programme (WFP).
Roberto Rodríguez Arévalo, producer of the Gonzalo Falcón Credit and Services Cooperative (CCS), explained the material benefits and technical advice received for almost five years in an area of more than 10 hectares dedicated to various crops.
The acquisition of an irrigation system, he added, made it possible to maintain production despite the intense drought and thus continue with the delivery of food to organizations such as the Grandes Alamedas Semi-boarding School, a Maternity Home, a Children’s Day Care Center and a Care System for the Family in the territory.
Little or no link with science was identified, meaning that there are gaps between academia and practice, each study and action must be brought into line with the reality of the municipality; it is a feedback process between the institutes and the producers, in which everyone wins, said Sheila Quintana Echemendía, PMA assistant in Cuba.
The meeting led to the creation of a collaborative network between the parties and even the creation of an agronomy degree in the area, for permanent exchange and the search for joint solutions to the challenges of the local food system in one of the driest municipalities in the country.
The participation of the Liliana Dimitrova Horticultural Research Institute of Quivicán, in the province of Mayabeque, the Agrarian University of Havana, Plant Health and the Indio Hatuey experimental station, in Matanzas, among other institutions, allowed the approach to studies on the management of pests and the use of microorganisms for soil improvement.
From Science to the Furrow, the tour of five municipalities in the eastern region culminated in Manatí, where details of the diagnosis in each of those territories and the need for greater introduction of scientific and technical results in food systems were presented.
