Cuba’s priorities in establishing scientific and technological cooperation projects with Brazil are focused on projects that respond to increases in food production in the short and medium term.
This was confirmed by Maury Hechavarra Bermdez, Deputy Minister of Agriculture, in exchanges with the delegation headed by the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC), who explained the difficult situation in which Cuba finds itself due to the lack of inputs for the production of animal feed to maintain livestock programs.
Brazil, with its vast experience in grain production, could provide Cuba with knowledge, techniques, and technologies that affect national crops, especially corn and soybeans, the main components of feed production.
Ruy Pereira, Director of the Brazilian Cooperation Agency, commented that the infrastructure for storing corn in the South American country had collapsed in view of the large harvests. Meanwhile, Cuba needs raw materials to achieve and stabilize the production of 900,000 tons of feed, while the harvest of transgenic corn is still insufficient.
This is a great goal for cooperation, as specialists from the Brazilian Agricultural Research Association (EMBRAPA) assured, also based on previous experience.
If Cuba could at least approach the food quantities it needs to support the livestock masses, it would be able to produce mostly pork, poultry, beef, eggs, and milk, products that currently depend on imports.
This Wednesday, Brazilians also learned about the goals of science and collaboration in a meeting with Telce Abdel González Moreira, Director of Science, Technology, and Innovation at the Ministry of Agriculture, who also summarized the framework for collaboration in this area and the importance of extensionism in the production of beans and other cereals.
Dr. Elizabeth Pea Turruellas, Director of the Urban, Suburban, and Family Agricultural Program, also explained in detail the workings of this program, in which Brazilians had a keen interest in bringing to their land, above all, the experience of family cultivation on terraces.
Other Cuban interests in collaborating with Brazil focus on livestock and genetic material, agricultural machinery, and irrigation technologies, as well as other scientific fields.
Ruy Pereira, director of the Brazilian Cooperation Agency, who heads the delegation of Brazilian specialists, predicted prospects for the introduction of technologies for agro-industrial production on the island, for which they will go on an expedition next November.
In October, technicians are scheduled to visit Cuba to work with Cuban scientists, specialists, and managers to set up collaborative projects that will also include humanitarian aid.
