Radio Havana Cuba's Science, Technology and Environment Program:
BREAKTHROUGHFor broadcast Sunday, June 25, 2000
Written and narrated by Arnaldo "Arnie" Coro, RHC's Science Editor
Hello and welcome to Breakthrough, our Science, Technology and Environment update. I am Arnaldo, Arnie, Coro, RHC's science editor. Today I'll provide an update on Cuba's effort to upgrade the sugar cane harvesting machines already in service, and how to develop new models of such important agricultural equipment.
The most recent model of the cuban sugar cane harvester is the KTP-3000 S, a sturdy, powerful machine, that draws on the experience provided by field use of its predecessors. Among the most stricking differences with the KTP-2 model are a three-bladed cane cutter that helps to bypass the field sugar cane dry cleaning station, thus allowing the cane cut by the KTP harvester to be fed directly to the sugar mill, saving transportation costs and reducing the time between the cutting operation and crushing, something considered by experts to be essential in order to reduce sucrose losses.
Another important improvement of the new harvester is how the conveyor belts were redesigned in order to avoid dirt and straw from jamming the machine. The KTP-3S, a previously designed sugar cane harvester, already incorporated a fully air conditioned operator's position, as well as a redesigned upper leaves cutter, which helps reduce the amount of useless low sucrose content parts of the sugar cane plant to be sent to the industrial installation.
At the Holguin-based sugar cane harvester and agricultural machinery factory, a lot of attention is paid to feedback from combine operators, who often participate in field tests of the prototypes. The Cuban effort to perform up to 80 percent or more of the sugar cane harvest using highly efficient farm machinery has two very important objectives in mind. In the first place, it has drastically reduced the number of workers who had to cut cane by hand using a machete, one of the hardest farm chores that you can think of. Secondly, place, the use of farm machinery has already had a great influence in developing the agro-industrial mentality among sugar industry workers. This in turn has led to very neatly planted fields, with appropiate contour plowing soil conservation techniques, irrigation ditches, and the planting of high yield hybrid sugar cane plants that are also more resistant to diseases.
KTP3000-S sugar cane harvester production will start soon in Holguin, but in the meantime, the process of upgrading the field tested KTP-2 with more powerful and fuel efficient diesel engines has proven to be a very wise intermediate step that made possible a much more efficient 1999-2000 sugar harvest season.
And this was Breakthrough for today, how the Holguin-based agricultural machinery plant continues to both upgrade sugar cane harvesters and design new ones that even have a potential export market.
From Havana, I am Arnaldo Arnie Coro, RHC's Science Editor wishing you all excellent reception of our short wave broadcasts.
For more information, via Air Mail:
"Breakthrough"
Radio Havana Cuba
Havana, CUBA 10600
Via e-mail: arnie@radiohc.org
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