Cuba is facing the challenge of boosting agricultural output under difficult climate conditions and on soils badly deteriorated by erosion, salinity and other problems. And scientists have a strategic role to play, provided they do not sit in their laboratories but get out into the fields where the action is.
“To do real science you have to be out there where the crops are growing,” said Sergio Ramírez, the son of a farmer who for the past 18 years has directed a research centre that is vital to meeting the challenge of securing Cuba’s food supplies, however adverse the climate conditions. In his view, the main thing is to be prepared for climate change, look for solutions, and bring together the experience and know-how of small farmers with the theoretical knowledge of researchers, in order to be forearmed to face the coming difficulties.
To respond to this challenge, “Cuba possesses a potential range of species and varieties that allow cultivation of specific foods under particular climate conditions,” said Rodríguez, the head of the National Research Institute of Tropical Root Vegetables (INIVIT) in the central province of Villa Clara. The expert told IPS over the telephone that many tropical countries like Cuba must plan food production around two completely opposite sets of probable conditions: severe drought and hurricanes. Three hurricanes devastated the island’s crops in 2008. (more…)
