Cuban VP recommends generalization of agricultural research

CIEGO DE AVILA, Cuba, Apr 12 (ACN) Salvador Valdes Mesa, Cuban Vice President, learned at La Candelaria farm, in the central province of Ciego de Avila, about the advances in the reproduction for productive purposes of the black soldier fly, an initiative he recommended to generalize in the country for its remarkable benefits as animal feed and biofertilizer.

On that farm, belonging to the Patricio Sierralta Credit and Services Cooperative (CSS), in the municipality of Ciro Redondo, under the leadership of Miguel Angel Iparraguirre Cruz, an agronomist engineer specialized in Plant Health, Master in Agricultural Sciences and Doctor in Biological Sciences, the first fruits of the construction of two modules can already be seen: one for research + development and the other for production.

At the beginning they told us we were crazy to undertake the intensive breeding of this insect," said farmer Alexander Ramirez Marrero, owner of La Candelaria, "but now we are seeing excellent results in the application to crops, mainly coffee and cocoa, of the fertilizer resulting from the decomposition of different organic materials by this fly.

He added that from one ton of the waste of the mini-industry located in the place, once processed by the black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens), they have obtained 230 kilograms of animal protein and the same amount of organic fertilizer, also known as frass, after a period of 28 days.

Considering the country's difficulties in importing animal feed due to the significant foreign currency deficit, Valdes Mesa considered the importance of generalizing the reproduction of Hermetia illucens in Cuba in those entomophagous and entomopathogenic breeding centers (CREE by its Spanish acronym) where it is possible.

La Candelaria farm stands out for being a reference in the province in the application of science and technology, has signed a productive scientific agreement with the University of Ciego de Avila Maximo Gomez Baez, in addition to being recently approved as a teaching unit of that university and having links with other esearch institutes in the country.