Cuban special municipality of Isle of Youth to use seagrasses in agriculture

NUEVA GERONA, Cuba, May 23 (ACN) Faced with the impossibility of acquiring inputs for soil improvement on the international market, the use of sea grasses - accumulated on the coastal coast - could become an alternative to increase agricultural yields on the Isle of Youth.

Engineer Roelis Castillo Mestre exclusively informed the Cuban News Agency that the Geominera company, along with researchers from the local university, are developing a mineral fertilizer, to which he proposed - in view of the deficit of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium - to add Thalassia testudinum, commonly known as turtle grass.

This is a study initiated by PhD in Sciences Haydee Paula Paz Izquierdo, vice-rector of the university, and the aforementioned state entity, to create this type of fertilizer (whose commercial name is yet to be defined), from several clay deposits located in this special municipality.

He explained that due to the productive potential of the marine species, it is proposed in a first experimental phase to select a group of small farmers and crops to verify the relevance of extending its application in situ, characterized by poor soils, and to endorse the production of this type of mineral fertilizer for commercial purposes, which would benefit the Geominera company.

This marine angiosperm is the dominant species in the prairies of the Cuban platform and is distributed throughout the beach area of the special municipality, the samplings carried out indicate that it is possible to collect 14 tons per kilometer of coastline, which would guarantee the manufacture of this type of mineral fertilizer with an endogenous natural resource, also useful as animal feed, he stressed.

Appreciating the use of these herbs, as one of the key inputs for food production and with a view to promoting ecological agriculture with a correlation to the Sustainable Development Goals, is consistent with Cuba's Strategy, which has among its articulating axes the use of science and innovation in production processes.

The Institute of Marine Sciences (ICIMAR by its Spanish acronym)) is leading this work, with the collaboration of the Global Environment Facility, the United Nations Development Program, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment and the responsibility of the Environment Agency.