Central productive center of the country strengthens banana cultivation in all its varieties

CIEGO DE AVILA, Cuba, Mar 8 (ACN) The La Cuba Agricultural Enterprise in Ciego de Avila, one of the first 11 productive centers in the national territory, is strengthening the cultivation of plantain in its three varieties to consolidate in a two-year period about 4,000 hectares in total, and then continue to grow.

Carlos Blanco Sanchez, director of this entity, banana leader in the archipelago, said that they currently have 800 hectares planted, but have proposed large investments there to plant one thousand hectares in a year between vianda and banana, 500 of each, and go promoting the Gran Enano fruit to reach 3,000 hectares.

If these 4,000 hectares are achieved, the country will be able to count on 100,000 tons per year from Ciego de Avila, between viandas, fruit and bananas, with the minimum resources, Blanco Sanchez explained.

That figure is calculated for average yields of 20 tons per hectare because with fertilizers and drip irrigation, we have reached 104 tons per hectare in the fruit, the executive said.

In August 2021, the country allocated 1.8 billion pesos, approved by the Central Bank of Cuba and the Ministry of Finance and Prices, for the agricultural development of several selected entities in rice, cassava, fruit and banana crops, as well as pork and beef cattle production.

Rolando Paez Hernandez, economic director of the entity, told Cuban News Agency exclusively that 34, 357,000 pesos were allocated for the activities related to the cultivation of bananas in its three varieties on the company's lands, in order to make more efficient, sustainable and coherent the integral development of a productive geographical area, as is undoubtedly La Cuba, where in addition to the existence of red soils there is an agricultural culture that should be exploited even more.