permaculture

[Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>]

http://www.ipsnews.net/2018/11/cubas-semiarid-region-reinvents-agriculture-survive/

Food & Agriculture
<http://www.ipsnews.net/news/human-rights/food-agriculture> Cuba’s Only
Semiarid Region Reinvents Agriculture to Survive
By Ivet González <http://www.ipsnews.net/author/ivet-gonzalez/> Reprint
<http://www.ipsnews.net/reprinting-articles/> |        | Print
<http://www.ipsnews.net/2018/11/cubas-semiarid-region-reinvents-agriculture-survive/#>
| Send by email |En español
<http://www.ipsnoticias.net/2018/11/semiarido-cubano-reinventa-agro-subsistir/>
[image: Mireya Noa and Marciano Calamato are a couple who have a farm in
Cuba's only semiarid zone, in the eastern province of Guantánamo. Thanks to
the trees they planted, they were able to shade areas of the land, cool
things down and counteract the strong evaporation of water from the soil in
this coastal and semi-desert eco-region. Credit: Ivet González/IPS]

Mireya Noa and Marciano Calamato are a couple who have a farm in Cuba's
only semiarid zone, in the eastern province of Guantánamo. Thanks to the
trees they planted, they were able to shade areas of the land, cool things
down and counteract the strong evaporation of water from the soil in this
coastal and semi-desert eco-region. Credit: Ivet González/IPS

SAN ANTONIO DEL SUR, Cuba, Nov 19 2018 (IPS) - At a brisk pace, Marciano
Calamato and Mireya Noa walk along the dry, yellow soil of their farm,
where they even manage to grow onions in Cuba’s unique semi-arid eastern
region.

The region, which has a particularly sensitive ecosystem due to the large
number of endemic species, covers 1,752 square kilometers in the southern
part of the province of Guantánamo. It is the only semi-arid ecoregion in
this Caribbean island nation, and is a world rarity because it is a coastal
desert on a relatively large island like Cuba, according to experts.

“It’s difficult, you have to make a great effort. We implement irrigation
systems and maintain a well from which we pump to a water tank, and from
there to the area of the crops,” explained Calamato, a farmer who in 2008
was granted the 12.4-hectare La Cúrbana farm in usufruct.
"This is an atypical municipality, with many risks of disasters from
drought, coastal flooding from high tides, high-intensity hurricanes and
even tsunamis." -- Tania Hernández

As in the rest of the province, one of the least developed in the country,
the population of 25,796 inhabitants of the municipality of San Antonio del
Sur depends almost exclusively on agriculture, which represents a challenge
in the local semi-desert ecozone.

“I participate in everything from planting to putting organic matter around
the plant. We have harvested very large onions, beans, tomatoes, beets,
cucumbers. Everything we plant grows well, as long as it has water,” Noa
said, discussing how they manage their nutrient-poor soils.

The leafy canopies of fruit trees and drought-resistant species provide
shade in the centre of La Cúrbana, where the small rustic wooden house of
Calamato and Noa is located, along with a greenhouse, water tanks for human
consumption, a storehouse for household goods and corrals for 40 head of
goats and more than 20 barnyard fowl.

La Cúrbana, where the family grows crops on a small scale, and which is
self-sufficient in animal feed, also has small livestock – the type of farm
recommended by experts in agriculture in a semi-arid ecosystem.

“The farms down here are very focused on animal production, small
livestock, which is the most suitable for this land. And there are
alternatives for achieving self-sufficiency, that is, for family
self-consumption and animal feed,” said geographer Ricardo Delgado.

He forms part of the coordinating committee for the project “Ponte Alerta
Caribe: Harmonising risk management strategies and tools with an inclusive
approach in the Caribbean”, which is being implemented in Cuba and the
Dominican Republic until early 2019, in order to strengthen national and
regional institutional capacities.

The project is executed by the international organisations Oxfam
<https://www.oxfam.org/en>, based in the UK, and Humanity and Inclusion
<https://hi-canada.org/en/index>, based in Canada, and has funding
from the Directorate
General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations
<https://ec.europa.eu/echo/>.
[image: Agricultural worker Abigail Castro points to where the sea is, from
the La Fortuna farm in the municipality of San Antonio del Sur, Guantánamo
province in eastern Cuba, which has a unique semiarid coastal ecosystem.
Credit: Ivet González/IPS]

Agricultural worker Abigail Castro points to where the sea is, from the La
Fortuna farm in the municipality of San Antonio del Sur, Guantánamo
province in eastern Cuba, which has a unique semiarid coastal ecosystem.
Credit: Ivet González/IPS

Among its diverse actions in Cuba is strengthening drought resilience in
San Antonio del Sur, IPS learned during several tours of farms seeking to
adapt to climate change in this municipality, where this reporter spoke to
farmers, specialists and authorities in the area.

Ponte Alerta strengthened the Guantánamo meteorological centre to process
drought data and equipped it with portable weather stations for
distribution on some farms and the data processing system. It also
supported the adaptation of a drought resilience tool to the coastal
conditions in the municipality.

“This is the most disadvantaged part of the municipality’s land. But La
Cúrbana is a very good experience of a farm that has adapted to these
conditions,” said geologist Yusmira Savón, who has participated in several
projects involving efforts to adapt to drought in the area.

A cocktail of agroecological techniques, water management, soil management,
productive reconversion, resilience to drought and the use of renewable
energies make up the formula prescribed by experts to farmers in a
municipality that reports a very low average annual rainfall, less than 200
millimeters.

“The soils of the semiarid ecosystem in San Antonio del Sur have
exploitable qualities from a chemical point of view, because they are loose
soils that are prepared and, with the help of organic matter and water, can
be farmed with a certain margin of profitability,” said agronomist Loexys
Rodríguez.

The expert warned about changes that affect the eco-region, such as the one
degree Celsius increase in the current temperature with respect to the
average recorded between 1980 and 2010, and changes in rain intensity and
seasonal rainfall variability.

All of these factors increase drought-related problems and put pressure on
the area’s productive sector, where environmental authorities are also
implementing programmes to combat deforestation and desertification.

Just nine meters from the sea, Abigail Castro is working on the La Fortuna
farm, which on six hectares produces more than 46 tons a year of various
crops such as onions, tomatoes, beans, yucca, melons, plantains (cooking
bananas) and beans (Phaseolus vulgaris).
[image: Marciano Calamato stands next to the well and water tank on his
farm, which enable him to irrigate his crops at least once a day, in Cuba's
only semi-desert zone, in San Antonio del Sur, a municipality in southeast
Cuba. Credit: Ivet González/IPS]


Marciano Calamato stands next to the well and water tank on his farm, which
enable him to irrigate his crops at least once a day, in Cuba’s only
semi-desert zone, in San Antonio del Sur, a municipality in southeast Cuba.
Credit: Ivet González/IPS

“We have a natural windbreak to protect the crops from strong sea winds,”
he said proudly.

Castro said: “We don’t have coastal flooding from high tides here, but the
river does flood everything when there are cyclones, and we remain
incommunicado. The people are evacuated to the town and we take the animals
to the mountains,” he said, explaining how the local farmers face climatic
events, the most serious in recent times being Hurricane Matthew, which hit
the eastern part of the island in 2016.

In La Fortuna, the shiny green crops contrast with the dry soil and the
scorching sun. “The problem along the coast is drought, which is very bad,
but here the crops suffer fewer pests,” said José Luis Rustán, who in 2008
was granted use of this land, where weeds used to rule.

“In addition to ensuring irrigation, we apply a lot of organic matter. I
produce it myself: I use manure from the corrals and I make compost and
green fertiliser. I’ve also used bat guano,” said the farmer, who has
developed his farm with his own means.
Related IPS Articles

   - Four-Year Drought Forces Cuba to Find Ways to Build Resilience
   
<http://www.ipsnews.net/2018/09/four-year-drought-forces-cuba-find-ways-build-resilience/>
   - Strengthening Cuban Coastal Landscape in the Face of Climate Change
   
<http://www.ipsnews.net/2018/07/cuban-coastal-landscape-strengthened-face-climate-change/>

For his part, agronomist Yandy Leyva, who works on the La Piedra farm,
where sheeps are raised for meat, and who takes part in Ponte Alerta
Caribe, recommended greater use of efficient microorganisms
(biofertilisers) by farms in the semiarid ecosystem, where he believes they
could even be sold.

He also lamented the fact that the irrigation systems available to the
farmers are very old, “and are flood irrigation systems, which wash away
and degrade the land.”

“We have to take measures like dams and soil cover and increase the density
of crops in order to mitigate this problem,” he said.

Other national and international cooperation projects in the semiarid
region promote the use of renewable energies and the planting of species
adapted to this ecosystem, which contribute to reforestation and create
jobs.

These species include the neem tree (Azadirachta indica), which originates
in India and is mainly used to make fertilisers, and jatropha (Jatropha
curcas), which is used to produce biodiesel.

“This is an atypical municipality, with many risks of disasters from
drought, coastal flooding from high tides, high-intensity hurricanes and
even tsunamis,” said Tania Hernández, vice president for local government
risk management.

And like the rest of the Cuban municipalities, San Antonio del Sur aspires
to strengthen food security. “We are 100 percent self-sufficient in tubers
and vegetables, but other items have to be imported,” said the official.