Cuba launches soil salinization project

HAVANA, Cuba, Mar 8 (ACN) The Alexander de Humboldt Institute for Basic Research in Tropical Agriculture (INIFAT) presented a draft project on the mitigation of soil salinization in Cuba at a meeting attended by Antonella Cavallari, secretary general of the Italo-Latin American International Organization (IILA), who is paying an official visit to Cuba and was invited to the meeting by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

INIFAT director general Guillermo Almenares Garlobo reported that the main goal of the project—called Mitigating the effects of secondary salinization in vulnerable agro-systems in the Caribbean region – 1st Phase: Cuban case study—is to produce results in Cuba with a view to their subsequent replication in member countries of the Association of Caribbean States as well as to tackle problems such as the reduction of fertility in soils affected by salinization, the risk to food security associated with the loss of agro-productivity, and the lack of agricultural management models adapted to local problems, mainly for the benefit of people, producers and local governments in vulnerable regions.

Antonella Cavallari thanked the Institute for the invitation and assured that the project is in line with IILA's strategic goals regarding the conservation of cultural and natural heritage in support of the 2030 Agenda, making reference to the scientific-technical cooperation between Cuba and her organization and to the results of several Italian scientists who have worked with INIFAT throughout its almost 120 years of life, including Mario Calvino and his wife Eva Mameli, both parents of the renowned journalist and writer Italo Calvino, born in Cuba in 1923.