Important Cuban scientific center focuses on crop development

 

SANTA CLARA, Cuba, Nov 7 (ACN) On its 30th anniversary, to be celebrated on November 19, the Institute of Plant Biotechnology (IBP) of the Central University "Marta Abreu" of Las Villas (UCLV), in central Cuba, is committed to strengthening science for plant development in Cuba.

The center - created by Commander in Chief Fidel Castro to achieve national sovereignty in the production of potato seed - has diversified over the years through research associated with projects, so it is already showing results in other crops such as bananas and plantains, coffee, beans, pineapple, ornamental and medicinal plants.

Marisol Freire Seijo, director of Science and Technological Innovation at the IBP, told the Cuban News Agency that, from its origins, the Institute was conceived to work in a complete cycle: research, production and commercialization; a process that has technological development as a common thread.

She explained that, in order to conceive the studies, the feasibility of the application and use of biotechnological methods for the purposes and the species in question is assessed, since there are traditional methods that are not negligible in propagation and genetic improvement.

The specialist commented that, precisely, among the main lines of the IBP are propagation, genetic improvement and development of bioproducts, a commitment that they have assumed, based on the relationship with other national and international scientific centers, and the insertion in projects with financing.

The Institute is currently working on more than 10 research projects related to the nutrition and protection of agricultural crops through the use of bioproducts of microbial origin; obtaining common bean lines with tolerance to abiotic stress, genetic improvement and in vitro propagation of ornamental species of commercial interest, and the use of biotechnological methods to obtain planting material of high genetic and phytosanitary quality in citrus cultivars, just to mention a few.