'Green' Farming Techniques to Boost Production

CUBA: 'Green' Farming Techniques to Boost Production

IPS
May 13, 2008
By Patricia Grogg
POZO REDONDO, Cuba, May 13 (IPS) - The application of agroecological
techniques and the salvaging of traditional farming methods have
revolutionised food production in rural areas along the southern edge of
the Cuban capital.

Cuba is currently facing the urgent challenge of boosting agricultural
productivity because of the rise in global food prices.

A number of farms in the outlying Havana district of Batabanó that are
taking part in the Programme for Local Agrarian Innovation (PIAL) have
seen improvements in their harvests and livestock.

The key seems to lie in efforts to capitalise on natural conditions in
the area and in the openness to innovative ideas, particularly with
regard to crop diversification.

"We used to have big problems with animal feed," 39-year-old Jorge
Bársena told IPS. "But today we don't need to buy hay, and we supply our
own meat and eggs," said the farmer, who owns the La Otmara farm and is
president of the 9 de Abril small farmers cooperative.

Bársena joined PIAL over four years ago as part of a seed improvement
project involving small farmers that was developed by the National
Institute of Agricultural Sciences (INCA). He has since experimented
with the cultivation of soybeans, wheat, beans, sorghum, millet, barley
and rice.

"Now we are working heavily with soybeans, which are the future of
animal feed here," he said. The success of his experiments with
protein-rich soybean varieties has helped foment livestock-raising in
this area, around 50 km south of Havana.

Bársena has also made incursions into the use of "green fertilisers" --
plants like jack beans (Canavalia ensiformis), blue pea vine (Clitoria
ternatea), velvetbean (Mucuna sp) and hyacinth bean (Lablab purpureus),
which improve the chemical and biological properties of soil while
helping to fight weeds.

Since PIAL's inception in 2000, more than 8,000 farmers in nine of
Cuba's 14 provinces have benefited from the programme, whose central
aims are to give greater participation to farmers in food production and
to decentralise the introduction of innovations in agriculture.

INCA is supported by universities, research institutes, Cuban and
international non-governmental organisations, aid agencies and local
agricultural and environmental authorities.

"I have obtained highly resistant and productive varieties," Ovidio
Llanes, a tomato farmer in the Batabanó district of Pozo Redondo, told IPS.

Llanes said he joined PIAL in 2004 "because I needed to improve my
varieties of tomato, which were highly susceptible to diseases, drought
and heavy rainfall."

He began working with 36 varieties of tomato, 46 kinds of beans, 13
kinds of wheat and several different kinds of triticale (a hybrid of rye
and wheat).

"I have earned good profits from tomatoes in 16 harvests, which would
have seemed impossible to me before," said the farmer, who is well-known
in the area for his work with tomatoes.

Llanes has organised four seed fairs, the most recent of which took
place on Apr. 18, in which he has exhibited the results of his work in
crop diversification. "For farmers, seeing is believing, and they take
these messages away with them from the fairs," he said.

"The fairs are an informal exchange among farmers that help salvage lost
elements of their traditional culture," Manuel Ponce, coordinator of the
local PIAL centre (CIAL) in the province of Havana, told IPS.

These new spaces for participation by farmers provide them with access
to crop diversity generated by scientific institutes, which are
generally far removed from those who work the land. "There are good
methods that are applied in many parts of the world, but since they are
not part of the traditions here, they are rejected," said Ponce.

PIAL, through the local CIAL centres, has put new species and varieties
into the hands of farmers, while providing funds and training aimed at
giving a boost to innovation in agriculture with a strong accent on
participation by local farmers.

Ponce said excellent yields can be achieved without the need for costly
fertilisers and herbicides. "Here in Batabanó there are many ecological
farmers who will not go back to chemical products, because even though
yields are slightly lower with (organic techniques), the expense is
greatly reduced," he said.

"If they start to distribute land, I believe we would no longer have to
import food," said Ponce. "Rice, corn, soybeans -- everything that is
imported now could be produced here, with more land and a few inputs."

Last year, Cuba spent some 1.6 billion dollars on food imports, a figure
that is expected to grow to 1.9 billion dollars this year due to the
sharp rise in global food prices. Meanwhile, around half of the
country's arable land is currently lying fallow.

The Cuban government is studying the possibility of distributing idle
land to private farmers -- a process that is already underway in the
case of tobacco and coffee production -- according to remarks made by
the president of the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP),
Orlando Lugo, to Cuban state television in March.

"There are many farmers who need to expand their farms," said Bársena.
"I don't think major funding is needed. What is needed instead is
agroecological management, based on our natural conditions, the climate,
and growing seasons -- traditional elements that have been lost."

"Nature cannot be ignored; we have to work with her, because she is our
guide," said the farmer. (END/2008)

http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/americas/cuba/5668.html