GAF
Mountain ecosystems, essential in life and production
Agricultural extension groups at the base act to counteract the effects of climate change in the mountain ecosystems of the province of Santiago de Cuba, under models of sustainable development that mitigate and transform the consequences of the fragility of the environment, preserve the values ??of the biodiversity and its role in the production of rain.
Those who live and produce in these hills know very well how the rainfall cycles, the dawn of intense mist or pleasant temperature were changed for the cultivation of cocoa and coffee, whose most coveted grain is sown in the highest heights of the Maestra and Sierra mountains. Crystal. Eliecer Rodríguez, president of the Los Baños Cooperative Production Unit (UBPC), in the municipality of Tercer Frente, recognized the delay in the flowering of coffee trees and other plants that delay the harvest and reduce economic results. He showed how the best grains of the cherry tree species were harvested at the beginning of the current year and not from September-October as usual and it is due to the modification of the climatic and soil characteristics, which also happens with fruits such as mango, whose Ripening peaks between June and July and not in May as usual. A good practice that reduces the climate effect are natural agroforestry gardens that ignite, at the same time, the values ??of love of the land, self-esteem, family unity and community management, a work that they see carried out through the Urban Agriculture Program. Suburban and Family. In his UBPC they establish which are the main means of production in households such as family labor, money, animals, natural resources and tools to till the land. Given the diversity of the climatic and soil characteristics of this Santiago mountainous region, crop production is subject to the sowing calendar (winter and summer crops), water availability and the needs of its inhabitants. The farmer said that specifically in the case of horticultural crops there are many species, although they already introduce exotic fruits, such as strawberries, and they also start having nurseries. Those hills, he pointed out, are recognized as zones of evolution, dispersion, endemism, and although there are transformations in the crops that are the main economic and livelihood of families, they always protect the soils, flora and fauna. He argued with the Coffee Development Program in the promotion and application of agroecological practices, planting in terraces, gravity irrigation systems and the rejuvenation of grain plantations that increase productivity, without environmental abuse. The country continues its efforts to promote actions to learn to live together in a sustainable and friendly way with the planet, and it is the main training that farmers and producers dedicated to the land receive through the Agriculture system in those ecosystems that are very significant for the social development of the Turquino Plan. In the base structures, teaching and science and technology centers located there, everything is done in compliance with good practices, not only in coffee and cocoa, but also various crops, vegetables, livestock or irrigation systems. The benefits of development with its modern technologies, construction of roads and bridges, go through respect for the way of life of the mountain people who want to keep their living and production spaces healthy.
