Cuba applies alternatives to cope with fertilizer shortages due to U.S. blockade

CIENFUEGOS, Cuba, Apr 12 (ACN) Farmers in the province of Cienfuegos are applying alternatives to improve crop yields due to the lack of fertilizers, motivated by the tightening of the U.S. blockade against Cuba and also by the global economic contraction after a year of COVID-19.
Yoan Sarduy, delegate of agriculture in Cienfuegos, told the press that there were deficits of inputs in this cold season that ended in February this year, and whose consequences will be seen in the low yields of the different crops.

He explained that before there was a technological package for almost all crops, but currently it is only destined to priority crops such as potato, tobacco, among others, hence they appeal to the application of agroecological techniques to achieve the rest of the plantations.

In Horquita, the main agricultural center of the territory, Rolando Perez Ramos, director of the entity, told the Cuban News Agency that the deficit of fertilizers has been present for several years, with the increase of restrictions applied by the U.S. government administration to this island.
The Horquita agricultural company owns 9,000 hectares(ha), 5,000 of which are dedicated to growing various crops, including bananas, cassava and malanga for long cycles; and sweet potatoes, corn, squash, beans and vegetables for shorter seasons.

The rest of the areas, some 4,000 ha, are used for livestock, for whose herds they require pastures and other protein crops as animal feed.

Perez Ramos indicated that a strategy of the entity to move forward is the planting of intercropping, because this way some crops provide nitrogen to the land and benefit the others, as well as giving a better use to the soil.

All the crops that can be intercropped we do it, as is the case of banana with sweet potato, and the other is to plant more resistant and undemanding crops in their development as is the case of eggplant, he concluded.