Rescuing spaces with potential for Urban, Suburban, and Family Agriculture in workplaces and yards and plots, to produce some 57,300 tons (t) of fresh vegetables and condiments, focuses the main work of the sector in Las Tunas, during this year.
Las Tunas, Cuba - To date, more than 14,385 tons have been produced in the province as a result of the creation and recovery of 46 organoponics distributed in the eight municipalities, as well as the revitalization of seven urban farms, several semi-protected, rustic houses, intensive vegetable gardens, and agro-ecological farms.
Odalis Bello Leyva, head of Urban, Suburban and Family Agriculture at the Provincial Delegation of the Ministry of Agriculture (MINAG, in Spanish), told the Cuban News Agency that work is being done on the use and exploitation of 37,170 square meters of vegetable beds to increase the number of vegetables per inhabitant.
"We expect to achieve yields of more than 20 square meters of fresh food per person, she added, which will allow us to comply with the guidelines and objectives of self-sufficiency that the Law of Food Sovereignty and Food and Nutritional Security defends and regulates."
In the first four months, the province has surveyed 6,830 farms ready for planting, and the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP in Spanish) has certified 53 as agro-ecological, with potential for a wide diversity of crops including fruits, viands, and vegetables.
Las Tunas has seed farms in each of the urban farms for the consumption of producers, however, the Minag intends to set up shops in the communities to market these inputs to farmers and other forms of production, and at the same time, to supply them with other supplies for agricultural work and animal feed.
Although the province's forecasts include closing the year with some 115,000 patios in operation, -15,000 more than the previous calendar-, these figures could increase due to an in-depth analysis of all the spaces with optimal conditions in the Tunisian geography, with priority given to work centers, schools, and other economic and social facilities.
In addition, the Minag is working with the banking authorities of the province to approve marketing credits for urban farms to eliminate the effects on payments to producers, as today this is one of the serious deficiencies afflicting those who work the land.
Among the problems affecting the development of Urban, Suburban, and Family Agriculture in Las Tunas are the lack of working resources, the deficient coverage in the transportation of organic material, the deterioration of the irrigation systems, and the loss of the mesh fabrics for the semi-protected.
