RADIO HABANA CUBA Hello, and welcome to "Breakthrough," our weekly Science, Technology and the Environment update. I am Arnaldo - Arnie - Coro, RHC's Science Editor, and today I'll tell you about Cuba's natural fertilizer production program and how HUMUS is providing Cuban farms with all the organic fertilizer that they need for their crops....
BREAKTHROUGH
Report on Science, Technology & the EnvironmentFor broadcast Sunday, November 25 & Thursday, November 29, 2001
Written and narrated by Arnaldo "Arnie" Coro, RHC's Science Editor
Earthworms and organic matter combine very effectively to produce one of nature's wonders, a unique organic fertilizer that increases the yields of every crop to which it is applied. Dr. Jose Ramon Cuevas, a famous Cuban biologist and expert in the production of natural fertilizers, who unfortunately died recently in an auto accident, was the nation's number one advocate for the use of earthworm-produced HUMUS.
Cuevas did a lot of research with different strains of earthworms, and he found that the productivity of those anelids varied among the different species. Dr. Cuevas obtained HUMUS-producing earthworms from many parts of the world... his busy underground workers came from California, India, Brazil, Australia and many other countries, as his laboratory had developed an exchange program with similar organic farming units around the world...
After many years of talking and talking about the use of earthworm-produced HUMUS fertilizer, Dr. Cuevas was succesful in providing farmers all around the Cuban archipelago with a technology that achieves very high yields, using different sources of organic matter, ranging from cow dung to a mixture of the leftovers from sugar cane production. Cuba is producing this year several tens of thousands of tons of this unique earthworm natural fertilizer, which finds use especially in the nation's organic farming program, under the direction of Dr. Adolfo Rodriguez Nodal, another Cuban scientist who is a firm believer in natural fertilizers and biological pest control.
Dr. Cueva's students are continuing his research work, and providing farmers with seminars about how to produce earthworm HUMUS fertilizer efficiently and at low cost. The results of Dr. Cueva's work may be seen all around Cuba, in each and every organic farming unit that help provide each Cuban more than 300 grams of vegetables to eat every day and even more, as recommended by the World Health Organization....
Instead of polluting chemicals, Cuban farmers are using earthworm humus with excellent results, and production of this unique fertilizer is done right where it is needed, thus saving transportation costs, too...
From Havana, this was another edition of "Breakthrough," a panorama of Cuba's efforts to use organic fertilizers in its national vegetable production program. My sound engineer and producer was Jose Costa Pupo; I am Arnaldo - Arnie - Coro, RHC's Science Editor, now wishing you excellent reception of our short wave broadcasts.
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