Granma International

• Boost for cultivation of edible mushrooms, among other
cooperative projects with the island

By Alberto D. Pérez

The UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) is directing additional support to the development of the island’s mountain areas, in which the Cuban government has made strong investments in recent years. The creation of new school orchards, the promotion of vegetable crops in the eastern provinces and a boost to edible mushroom production throughout the country.

In the Mountain University Faculty of San Andrés de Caiguanabo, in the extreme western Guaniguanico mountain region, a Technical Cooperation Project with the FAO was inaugurated for the economic, social and environmental development of the country’s four main mountainous regions.

Fidel Ramos, executive secretary of the Turquino Manatí Plan, and Roberto Arias Milla, FAO representative to Cuba, headed a ceremony at the Mountain Faculty to initiate the project, which is aimed at the integral progress of these high-altitude Cuban areas.

Another eight technical support projects, that emerged out of funds raised by TELEFOOD, the FAO’s traditional international arts festival, have been designated to Cuba’s eastern region to promote food production.

Four of those projects will permit the creation of school orchards in 56 education centers in the provinces of Guantánamo, Santiago de Cuba and Holguín, in eastern Cuba. Upon learning of this FAO aid, education authorities told Granma International that these orchards are veritable altars for life and for learning about agriculture.

Student participation in work on the gardens – along with improving and balancing their own nutrition – promotes their learning and skills in health, nutrition, environmental conservation and sustainable agriculture, and thus contributes to empowering an integral education and the personal values of each student.

In Guantánamo and Santiago de Cuba, the FAO also initiated, through TELEFOOD support, the production of organic and other vegetables in private agricultural cooperatives. The National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP) was pleased to welcome these new technical support initiatives, which will aid the growth of agricultural production in that region, which has been suffering from a long drought.

In addition, the FAO has instigated a Technical Cooperation Project for producing edible mushrooms as an important element of the Urban Agriculture Program. It will have as its counterpart the Institute of Basic Research for Tropical Agriculture (INIFAT), a prestigious Cuban educational and productive institution.

There are many reasons for producing edible mushrooms, which are a great source of amino acids and other nutritional substances that confer upon those vegetables a special importance for the improved nutrition of Cuban families.

Edible mushroom production, the INIFAT emphasizes, will not only contribute to the nutrition of producers’ families, they will also bring additional economic benefits through the marketing of surplus crops, and will facilitate the incorporation of women into development and income earning.

Edible mushroom production also has the benefit of requiring a very low investment, its growth cycle is short and the volume of production facilitates the creation of food-processing cooperatives and lower levels of pollution.

Arias Milla, the FAO representative in Cuba, affirmed to Granma International that the organization is pleased by this reinforcement of technical cooperation, which he said is aimed at “increasing the range of nutritional possibilities for the laborious Cuban population.” (2/05/2004)