The cold planting campaign, which as every year began in September, is expected to grow in the municipality of Banes, in Holguin province, and to reach up to four thousand hectares, despite the difficult situation facing the country, which affects all sectors.
Julio Escalona, director of the Citrus Agroindustrial Company, commented that of the two campaigns carried out during the year, the spring and the winter ones, the latter is the one in which the highest yields are obtained, as early sowing guarantees a good yield, particularly in vegetables and grains, which is the strong point of this season.
Winter planting campaign
In view of fuel shortage, he pointed out as challenges for the sector the prioritized distribution to producers and cooperatives with better results to guarantee higher volumes of production, as well as the organization of the mechanized forces that today are going through serious difficulties with tires and batteries, which are being solved little by little.
Escalona pointed out that the production area of Los Ángeles-Río Seco, with the cooperatives “Regino Guerrero”, “José Ramón Mateo” and “Thelmo Esperance” account for almost 40 percent of the sowing program, together with the “28 de Enero”, of Mulas, especially in beans and corn, particularly.
Serafín Peña Rojas, head of Technical and Development of the Citrus Agroindustrial Enterprise of Banes, pointed out that a superior organization is being achieved in the delivery of fuel, while efforts are being made in the work with animal traction, the agility in the delivery of land and the protection of irrigated crops.
Carlos Herrera, leader of the Basic Unit of Cooperative Production (UBPC) “28 de Enero”, of Mulas, one of the best entities of its kind in the municipality, said that the current weather conditions, with delays in the rains, the lack of inputs, seeds and other materials, forces them to “rethink strategies, modify crops and to sow and test a high work discipline, if we want to achieve good results”, he said.
Winter planting campaign
In the middle of the furrow, in the banana plantation, Ramón Hidalgo, president of the UBPC “Antonio Maceo”, of Yaguajay, admitted that “these campaigns will decrease in the sowing of grains, but will increase those of vegetables because the first is not guaranteed, but the others are, and that is where we have to direct our efforts, because we can not leave empty land,” he said.
“We are going for more”, said Noel Bauta Desdín, president of the Credit and Services Cooperative (CCS) “Camilo Cienfuegos”, of Cano Cuatro, which has in program to plant grains, vegetables, vianda, but also pasture areas, because it is, together with the “José Antonio Echevarría”, of Tanganica, the largest cattle producers in the municipality of Banes.
“The fight is hard, really hard”, said young producer Yudimir Rojas Reyes, from the “José Antonio Echevarría” farm, who said that if we want to advance in agriculture and guarantee a good winter planting campaign “we must have the land prepared at the end of September, because it has been proven that in October, traditionally, it rains in Banes and we must plant as much as possible”.
Winter planting campaign
For this winter planting campaign that is already underway, the lands of Godínez will be a priority within the agricultural strategy in this northeastern territory with the aim of rescuing, little by little, this productive pole, where there is an important project to irrigate several hectares with central pivot machines and localized drip irrigation.
Along with beans, corn, tomatoes and peppers, the fields will return to the fields in this cold planting campaign for the agriculture of various crops, malanga and even potatoes, because farmers like Adrián Sablón, from the area of Los Ángeles, saved seeds of the tuber from their first and successful experience in 2022.
“We are going to work as usual, and despite the setbacks, we will get ahead”, said farmer Yadián Batista, who, in the midst of the intense sun and high temperatures, has already prepared about four hectares with animal traction, a sign of the high will of the banana farmers.
In this combat that does not stop on Saturdays, Sundays or holidays, they are there, pulling the yoke of oxen, with their shirts soaked with sweat, their boots sometimes scuffed from stumbling on the ground, and with their calloused hands glued to the plow. Dennis Silva, Danilo Moscardón, Leonardo Sainz or Alfredo Neves, and many other stubborn and willful men of the field, should be made a monument for so much sacrifice, will and love for the land.
By: Carlos García Matos (Radio Banes) – Translated by Radio Angulo
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