In order to boost the development of cocoa cultivation in the eastern province of Granma, producers and researchers work together to promote new plantations, and the study and introduction of varieties with greater yield potential.

With this purpose, in the municipality of Guisa, a replica of the spice from the germplasm bank that there is in the Experimental Agroforestry Station (EEAF) of Baracoa, the largest locality producer of the item in Cuba, will be directly granted.

Adonis Sosa López, second director of the EEAF of Guisa, told the press that the assembly process is at 50 percent and it is expected to be concluded this month, while they are digging the land destined to cultivation.

It is, he said, one of the strongest work projections that the scientific institution is carrying out this 2019 in safeguarding of the genetic and forest resources of the country.

The initiative was promoted by the national group of the branch, based on the impacts that, in October 2016, Hurricane Matthew caused to the cocoa germplasm bank of Baracoa, said Leonel Guevara Aranda, general director of the Batalla de Guisa Agroforestry Company.

The limitations for the rescue of the plantations after the passing of the hurricane through the province of Guantánamo, along with the need to boost the production of the cacao in Granma, determined the establishment of a second area that, strategically, could respond to any eventuality, he explained.

He informed that in the current cocoa harvest the company has the commitment to collect seven tons, of which four have already been delivered, and to date three of the four new hectares committed in the crop development program have been planted.

He added that they have the necessary garden centers and seed, and the producers are also selected, in whose care and training together with the scientists and specialists of the local EEAF are working.

This collaboration has among its objectives, in addition, introducing related varieties with greater yield potential in regarding with the characteristics of the municipality of Guisa, he added. (By: Elizabeth Reyes Tases, ACN / PHOTO: Internet)

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