Cuba extends coffee production to the plains

HAVANA, Cuba, Aug 6 (ACN) Cuba needs to take coffee production to the lowlands to take advantage of the potential of the labor force and some soils, in order to increase harvests, especially those that can be destined for national consumption.

The migration of the highlanders to towns and cities has created a shortage of workers to attend to the Arabica coffee plantations - a line traditionally recognized in the international market - and as a consequence, a reduction in the harvests, which are abysmally far from those of the beginning of the 60's of the last century.

On the basis of the Cuba-Vietnam Collaboration Project, a technology has been established for the extension of coffee to the plains, which has as its main element the genetic material brought from the Asian country, which is promoted in seed farms in the eastern municipalities of Tercer Frente, Guisa and Buey Arriba, and distributed to the provinces involved in the program.

A monitoring carried out prior to the implementation of the program, showed that in the plains there are about 400 hectares cultivated with coffee without meeting technical requirements, whose destination is family self-sufficiency, which evidenced the feasibility of its extension, maximum when it will be supported by technologies, training to producers and the advice of science.

Starting in 2017, work has been carried out in this Coffee on the Plains Program, led by the Agroforestry Business Group, which has made agroforestry companies responsible for the attention to producers and the creation of technical and organizational conditions that allow its development.

Since then, 1,200 hectares have been planted (another 700 will be incorporated this year) with the aim of reaching 7,163 hectares by 2030 and harvesting more than 4,000 tons per year.

Nine specialized production poles have been established in the country, with the largest areas in Matanzas, Villa Clara and Mayabeque; according to Elexis Legrá Calderín, director of Coffee, Cocoa and Coconut of the Agroforestry Group, the plantations will be interspersed with fruit trees, and where it is not possible, plantain will be planted with the dual purpose of using it as shade and food.