The obtaining of 80 thousand seedlings of the Vietnamese Robusta coffee variety guides the projections of the province of Las Tunas to implement the planting of coffee, an incipient but ambitious program that foresees the sowing of 35 hectares of the aromatic bean in the first sowing campaign.
Las Tunas, Cuba.- Yoandry Pupo Romero, a specialist in the Agroforestry Company of the territory, explained to the Cuban News Agency that the main objective is to substitute imports; hence this promising clone, with excellent results, has been selected to extend it to the entire province, especially because it is more resistant and better adapted to the plains of this geographical area.
The campaign includes intensive planting in two nurseries, the José Martí -belonging to the Las Tunas Agroforestry Company-, with 20 thousand seedlings, and 60 thousand in the municipality of Amancio; a strategy that is already in the phenological phase of sprouting called butterfly, which indicates that the transplantation of the seeds will be a success, the agronomist pointed out.
The program is also in the stage of soil preparation, collection of organic matter, and conditioning of the areas, which is impossible to develop without the application of science and technology that, based on agroecology, today allows better analysis of substrates and soils studies in more detail, besides the use of techniques such as live barriers.
Pupo Romero pointed out that the coffee campaign in Las Tunas will have the introduction of two new technologies that could be decisive; the use of a mechanized planting method, with a drilling implement of Vietnamese technology that allows to introducing in each hole 15 to 20 kilograms of organic matter.
The 28-year-old, about to defend his thesis as an option for a master's degree in Agronomy, added that as a result of his research, charcoal will be applied, an element that helps retain moisture in the soil and, therefore, the nutrients allow better-rooting process.
Besides the already identified producers, the program is expected to strengthen in a second season, to achieve the sowing of 61 hectares (ha) of the grain. This proposal includes the planting of 25 ha in the Elpidio Sosa credit and services cooperative, of the municipality of Puerto Padre, as well as those who legally own land and are interested in cultivation.
The insertion of the Youth Labor Army brigades was made official, which will begin with the promotion of coffee growing with 10 ha during this year, and there is a projection of 300 until 2030.
The creation of the Provincial Group of Coffee and Coconut in the Agroforestry Company is key to making a program prosper that, although it emerged decades ago, began to lay its foundations in 2014 with the training of the Science and Technology units of the Institute of Agroforestry research, necessary, above all, in a province like Las Tunas, a predominantly flat territory.
