by Yosley Carrero
HAVANA, May 1 (Xinhua) -- Cuba strives to boost its production of biofertilizers and plant biostimulants to increase crop yields in the face of six decades of U.S.-led sanctions that bar its access to traditional fertilizers on the international market.
Cuban scientist Alejandro Falcon begins his day early at a biofertilizer plant at Cuba's National Institute of Agricultural Sciences (INCA) located in the western province of Mayabeque, some 30 km east of the country's capital of Havana.
Falcon heads a scientific project to produce Cuban plant biostimulants PECTIMORF and QUITOMAX for coffee, sugar cane, tobacco and maize, among other crops.
"It has been difficult for Cubans to access fertilizers in the international market due to the U.S. economic sanctions against Cuba," said Falcon. "We are now betting on the use of environmentally friendly fertilizers."
The Cuban government is implementing a package of 63 measures to strengthen the agricultural sector and increase national food production.
As part of this initiative, the institute is projected to produce between 6,000 and 10,000 liters of homegrown plant biostimulants to help meet the local demands of state companies and farmers.
Founded in 1970, the institute oversees agricultural research and programs in over 70 out of the country's 168 municipalities while also producing Cuban biofertilizers AZOFERT and ECOMIC.
Yuliem Mederos, who works in the department of physiology and biochemistry at INCA, said locally produced biofertilizers minimize the use of pesticides in agriculture.
"Cuban agriculture needs to take off and subsequently increase productivity. We are doing our part," she said. "In the future, we would like to export our products."
Cuba has to import more than 70 percent of the food it consumes, according to official figures, making agriculture a strategic sector in the island's national development plan for 2030 and its business portfolio for foreign direct investment.
According to senior expert Ramon Rivera, the plan calls for new biofertilizer plants to be built in all of the island's 15 provinces in the coming years under the supervision of the Cuban Ministry of Agriculture.
"For the plan to succeed, we need to work on the production of green and organic fertilizers in Cuba," he said. Enditem
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