The Act Differently! Project, managed by the World Food Programme (WFP). Promotes the professional development of agricultural producers in the province of Holguin. Aiming to optimize planting and breeding processes through the application of science.
Developed in the municipality of Urbano Noris in collaboration with the Municipal University Center (CUM by its initials in Spanish), the program has three attached classrooms designed to meet the specific needs of farmers interested in earning a bachelor’s degree. Mirelys Gainza González, director of the CUM, explained to CNA.
Launched with 10 enrolled farmers, a flexible schedule was established so they could access education and balance it with their work. Also with classes being held on alternate Saturdays at the La Isabela farm. As well as at other locations in a cooperative and an experimental and training center.
Gilberto Velázquez, owner of La Isabela and a member of the Mario Muñoz Credit and Services Cooperative, is one of the beneficiaries and is a fourth-year student in Agronomy. He emphasized that he learned to combine agricultural traditions with modern scientific knowledge aimed at improving his work.
The director noted that farmers are also trained in the use of new technologies specific to the sector. Such as backpacks and tillers, donated by the project to humanize and streamline work on the land.
An added value is the incorporation of students as Technical Advisors for Teaching (ATD). Which helps mitigate the teacher shortage in the area and manages their categorization to grant them a formal position at the CUM.
These efforts are focused on more in-demand careers, such as accounting and feasibility studies in industrial processes. Moreover key areas of agricultural and sugarcane development in the area, she noted.
Gainza added that the results of the scientific and practical work are used to meet the needs of local institutions. Such as daycare centers, semi-boarding schools, senior citizen homes, nursing homes, and special schools. To which monthly deliveries are made.
Funded by the Korean Development Agency (KOICA) through the WFP, the Act Differently! project provides direct assistance to more than eight thousand people in five municipalities in eastern Cuba. Also effectively responds to the national policy promoting food sovereignty.
With information from the Cuban News Agency
Translated by Aliani Rojas Fernandez
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