RESEARCH WORK

 

 

 

Innovation and technology transference at the Experimental Station "Indio Hatuey": 50 years propitiating the development of the Cuban rural sector (Part II)

 

 

 

Taymer Miranda, Hilda Machado, J. Suárez, Tania Sánchez, L. Lamela, J. M. Iglesias, A. Suset, A. Pérez, Milagros Milera, G. J. Martín, Maybe Campo, O. López, Saray Sánchez y L. Simón

Estación Experimental de Pastos y Forrajes "Indio Hatuey". Central España Republicana CP 44280, Matanzas, Cuba
E-mail: taymer.miranda@indio.atenas.inf.cu

 

 

 


Abstract

The changes occurred in Cuban agriculture at the end of the 20th century caused the rupture of the paradigm based on import dependence, for which it became necessary to begin building a new technical-economic model based on endogenous development, associated to the promotion of innovative capacities and sustainable technologies; this demanded that knowledge-development centers focused on the application of innovations, through adequate rural extension processes. In this sense, the Experimental Station «Indio Hatuey» focused the efforts on the promotion of innovation processes in Cuban livestock production, which were enhanced at the beginning of the first decade of this millennium, when a turn occurred in the conventional technology transference system to promote innovation and rural local development. Outstanding examples of the application of this approach are: the Livestock Production Development Program in the Martí municipality, the enhancement of the processes of local agricultural innovation and of promotion of local innovation systems in the cooperative and farmer sector of Matanzas province, as well as the integrated food and energy production on agroecological bases in five Cuban provinces.

Key words: Agricultural sector, innovation, technology.


 

 

INTRODUCTION

In Higher Education as well as in agricultural research centers from other ministries (Agriculture and Science, Technology and Environment), knowledge and technologies are generated and disseminated, but there is not a conscious, integrating and systematized project, at least explicitly, for the management of local development processes, with an approach based on innovation that promotes cooperation, science-productive organization link and networking.

Such conception has determining incidence on the local dynamics, as the essentially technologicist thought of innovation, which has prevailed for centuries, is overcome, to move to a contextualized (temporary and spatial), inter- and trans-disciplinary, flexible and»soft» innovation concept (Salazar, 2007). This demands the promotion of innovation capacity and the knowledge of the management bases of ecologically-healthy, but also economically and financially attractive, socially pertinent and technically viable technologies (Simón et al., 2005).

 

Innovation processes in the cooperative and farmer sector: emerging paradigm in the Cuban countryside

In the first part of this paper a explanation was given about how the enterprises, farms and basic units of cooperative production (UBPC), all belonging to the state sector, received priority by the State in the distribution of the scarce available resources in the 90's; however, this did not mean that, in agreement with this aid, they stood out for their results.

On the other hand, the agricultural production cooperatives (CPA) and cooperatives of credits and services (CCS) as well as individual farmers feed their livestock with sugarcane and harvest residues, king grass and natural pastures. This allowed them, amid the strong resource restriction in the 90's, to increase their productions (González et al., 2004). These productive forms also have a lower number of animals, which facilitates the management of their herds and the better utilization of available resources.

It is valid to stress that, although as national average the productive and reproductive indicators of Cuban livestock production are deficient, this sector has shown very favorable values (table 1), especially in the last two decades. In 2008, for example, with only 27% of the national agricultural surface and 55% of the cattle, the farmer sector delivered 62% of the cattle milk and 45% of the beef nationally produced (Mirabal, 2010). In 2009, after the beginning of the land leasing process, this sector produces 96% of the tobacco, 70% of the pork, 60% of the roots, tubers and vegetables and 59% of the cow milk; in addition it has 90% of the small livestock and 62% of the cattle (González, 2009).

These evidences gave value to the proposal of approaching the productive practices in a more integrated way, which would facilitate with the up-scaling of participatory methodologies- the multi-sectorial (state and private) participation in the design, construction, implementation and evaluation of adequate solutions to the needs of each space.

In this sense, Prats and Guía (2003) suggested that there is a distinctive and systemic trait in innovation as located phenomenon. These antecedents referred that the combination between the physical proximity, the repeated transactions, the shared history and the way to view the surroundings produces results which can not be predictable by another type of innovation system.

 

The Local Agricultural Innovation Program

In this context, several institutions throughout the country made efforts to contribute to this initiative. Within the Local Sustainable Development Group of the Experimental Station "Indio Hatuey", the Local Center of Agricultural Innovation (LCAI) was constituted; it responded to the initiative promoted by the National Institute of Agricultural Sciences (INCA), with the support of international cooperation, which laid the foundations to enhance the Local Agricultural Innovation (PIAL) in Matanzas province.

In order that the evidence generated in this process was disseminated and integrated to the tissue of the Cuban organizations related to agriculture, the direction of the provincial directions of the LCAIs, undertaken in most cases by a scientific organization (university or research center), had as their main function gathering the stakeholders involved in this process to facilitate the exchange of experiences among farms or groups of farms, considered as primary centers of genetic and technological diversity (PCGTD).

In this sense, full autonomy was granted for decision-making and resource management to the directions, formed by the persons responsible for the thematic axes and PCGTDs, with the inclusion of an accountant and a financial manager.

The created LCAI undertook the responsibility of facilitating the innovation process in 25 farms belonging to nine CCS, located in eight municipalities of the province. Through a companion relation, the new concepts were approached to describe the «context-centric» way of knowledge generation, in which the fusion of knowledge provides higher contextual and trans-disciplinary character, ethics and participation in the transformations implemented.

In a first stage, the work was aimed at diagnosing productive systems, facilitating the access to biological diversity and carrying out dissemination actions which would allow the formation of networks around food security, agroecology and climate change; the fact that the introduction of an innovation in the productive process would generate efficiency, as long as producers were associated from the beginning to its elaboration, was considered a premise.

At the beginning of the work, the productive systems lacked diversity and none of them had more than 23 species, their soils had moderate and low fertility and they had not incorporated the philosophy of integration of the forestry component to animal production systems. The prevailing livestock was cattle and milk production was from 3 to 5 kg/cow/day. The livestock production activity and the application of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers were the major sources of greenhouse gas emissions.

The existing environmental situation showed a strong trend to soil deterioration; in addition, the economic (lack of inputs) and management factors favored the dissemination of weeds, affecting the survival of productive species, which affected, eventually, the incomes of producers and families that depended on the productive activities of the farms.

In view of this problem, it was necessary to facilitate the transformation towards productive systems, which meant the support of future generations from a standpoint of cooperation and nature protection, through the design of productive environments which had the diversity, stability and resilience of natural ecosystems.

The first task was to satisfy the demands of education, while elaborating the transformation strategies that responded to the particular problems identified (Miranda et al., 2010). In the period 2008-2011, 16 education workshops were held, with more than 500 direct beneficiaries. Among the main topics approached were:

This last topic had high impact due to the scope of the training program designed and implemented in three stages, which facilitated the installation of 19 production plants of the bioproduct in the provinces Holguín, Las Tunas, Sancti Spiritus, Villa Clara, Pinar del Río and Maatanzas. In addition, the exchange of experiences was promoted, after the experimentation processes, with different crops in the implicated farms.

The local diversity fairs became a useful tool for the participatory dissemination of diversity (Ortíz, 2006). Seven events were held in different provinces, with 250 direct beneficiaries. In them diversity exchange of 74 grain, pasture and vegetable species, and within them, many varieties, was propitiated. At the same time, the visits to successful experiences were stimulated, allowing the coordinated construction of solution proposals for the problems of local productive systems.

With the continuous revalorization of the principles of the «Farmer to farmer» methodology (Anon, 2006) the producers were gradually integrated to the activities organized from the LCAI and also by themselves. In turn, they progressively changed their role, becoming active stakeholders in the transmission of experiences, through courses, events, schools of farmers and workshops (figure 1).

The results of this stage served as basis to propose the diversification of the productive areas of the farms, in a progressive way. The dissemination and establishment of 4 780 woody and fruit trees from 25 species was achieved, which widened the productive activities, and the use of bioproducts and cover crops was promoted as alternative practice for soil protection.

Likewise, the diversity of the herbaceous stratum was increased, from the introduction of grass and twining legume varieties, which confer higher productivity to the systems, due to the increase of the yield and quality of the available biomass per surface unit (table 2).

In general, 80 ha dedicated to animal production were transformed, from which 43 ha are under exploitation and have increased productivity in the farms. In these spaces the introduction was achieved of improved pastures from 12 herbaceous forage species and of 115 000 trees from seven forage species of high nutritional value. This allowed increasing the milk production to 6-8 kg/milking cow/day (Sánchez et al., 2011).

This diversity of species and varieties favors the volume of the plant cover and the forested areas in the farms, which propitiates an increase of the environmental services generated by these ecosystems, such as carbon sequestration. The diversity, the integrated management of all the system components and reforestation determined a leap regarding the reduction of emissions and the sequestered carbon in the farms; the latter increased from 10 to 42 t/ha as compared to the basis year (table 3).

Emphasis was made on the link of environmental and socioeconomic variables that expressed a higher welfare of the families, while innovation systems were promoted that facilitated the articulation of the stakeholders, considering the local knowledge and the needs of the farmers as substantial elements in the collective generation of alternatives for food production.

In this sense, the diversified agricultural and livestock production systems provide solutions to many of the problems inherent to specialized systems, among which is the production of food and energy in the same space, to solve the problems related to the depletion of fossil fuels and the irrational use of natural resources in the farms.

The work conducted until now with the farmer sector was complemented with the start of another international project (BIOMAS-CUBA), which is focused on the production in an integrated way- of food and energy, on agroecological bases (Suárez, 2008; Suárez and Martín, 2010; Suárez et al., 2010; 2011).

 

The BIOMAS-CUBA Program

This initiative began to be executed by late 2008 together with other Cuban institutions and with the financial support of the Swiss Development and Cooperation Agency (SDC). The work conducted in the framework of this project involves five provinces (Guantánamo, Santiago de Cuba, Las Tunas, Sancti Spiritus and Matanzas), in which the local operational committees (LOC) work as organizational structure. Among the main research and innovation results obtained in the project, the following stand out (Suárez et al., 2011):

a) the introduction, collection, characterization and conservation of the germplasm of 23 provenances of such oil plants as Jatropha curcas, five of Ricinus communis and 10 of Aleuritis trisperma, collected in Cuba or of foreign origin, with potential for biodiesel production;

b) the chemical characterization of shells, press cakes and oil from non-edible oil plants: J. curcas, Azadirachta indica, Moringa oleifera, R. communis and Aleuritis moluccana;

c) the planting and agronomic management of 93 ha of J. curcas associated to 21 agricultural crops intercropped in 70% of the area. These plantations have been allocated in non-utilizable soils for other agricultural productions, which are,in high proportion, in highly fragile areas due to their environmental affectations. In addition, 97 ha of fruit trees and 15 ha of neem could be established. With this work 117 ha of soil invaded by Dichrostachys cinerea were recovered and 1 830 ha of soils were improved. These improvements allowed achieving considerable food productions, among which potato, beans, soybean, peanut, corn, sesame, cassava and sorghum stand out, under conditions of survival irrigation and moderate fertilization with biofertilizers;

d) the production of 147 000 seedlings of J. curcas, neem and fruit trees, applying biofertilizers and creating an infrastructure to produce up to 80 000 seedlings/year;

e) the definition of a cleaning plan of the J. curcas fruit and extraction, filtration, degumming and neutralization of its oil. For this purpose, a plant was acquired with an annual production capacity of 105 600 L of biodiesel, 283,5 t of compost from the shells and press cakes, as well as 13,5 t of glycerol (raw material for producing glycerin, which is used in the perfume and cosmetic industry);

f) the construction or repairing to a lesser extent- of 69 biodigesters, which represents an annual production higher than 200 020 m3 of biogas and 867 t of biofertilizers. In this process the development of a software supported on LabVIEW 7.1 made a contribution, together with a handbook for designing biodigesters and their treatment ponds;

g) the setting up of 28 bioproduct production plants from biodigester effluents, enriched with native microorganisms, which are used in animal and plant health, crop nutrition, elimination of bad odors in livestock production facilities, bioremediation of lagoons contaminated with organic residuals and in bioceramic filters;

h) the acquisition of two gasifiers with their generators, with a capacity of 20 and 40 kW/h which operate with wood from D. cinerea (a ligneous thorny invasive plant) and residues from pruning in livestock production agroforestry systems, as well as wood residues, respectively; and

i) the production of 3 196 t of food (vegetables, fruits, milk, meat and eggs) in 2009-2010 and the diversification of the productive lines. The expenses were reduced related to the substitution of imports (equivalent to 280 626 USD) in 14 municipalities of five provinces of the country, in which the local production of biogas, biofertilizers, rice, milk, fertilizers and other foodstuffs was achieved.

The transformations allowed estimating that the contribution of the project in terms of carbon sequestration ascended to 643,4 t of CO2. In addition, it determined the creation of 108 direct jobs and the direct improvement in the quality of life of 1198 people (due to the increase of employment, income, access to equipment and inputs and better working conditions, as well as to the gas cooking service), and the empowering of farmer women, who have even created self-financing and governability initiatives.

With regards to capacity-building, the initiative has allowed training 911 producers and 41 managers -39% women-, and in turn it has facilitated the creation of a network of stakeholders and institutions related to the productive chain of food and energy (63 institutions and organizations, 212 experts, extension workers and producers), which functions actively; such network is supported on a web and allows its members to interact.

 

Congresses and international projects as catalysts and instruments of the socialization of experiences and good practices

Since 1994 the Experimental Station "Indio Hatuey" organizes, every two years, international congresses, such as "Trees and shrubs in livestock production" (seven editions) and "Agrodesarrollo» (two editions); within this framework, field days are conducted, which have played a key role in the socialization of the scientific results as well as the successful innovations in the productive sector, and producers and farmers have an outstanding participation in them, especially in the Agrodesarrollo Convention.

Likewise, since the late 2008, several international projects, such as PIAL and BIOMAS-CUBA, have played a catalyst role and served as instruments of socialization, through the delivery of equipment, tools and inputs to the producers, their training and the facilitation and advisory of their sustainable development projects, with which agricultural innovation processes have been promoted at local scale.

 

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

The changes occurred during the last decades of the 20th century in Cuban agriculture brought about development in the rural context, but there were diverse limitations which did not allow defining it as real development, in spite of the large resources used in the promotion of the extensive growth model, depending on imports. This demanded a technological change in the Cuban agriculture, which was not perceived as necessary until the disintegration of the USSR and the disappearance of the socialist block, with the resulting economic crisis of the 90's.

Responding to that, the rupture of the paradigm based on the dependence on imports occurred and it became necessary to build a new technical-economic model based on the endogenous development, associated to the promotion of innovative capacities and sustainable technologies, in the productive, economic, social and environmental areas. For such reasons, the social stakeholders related to rural development, especially the knowledge development centers, focused on the application of innovations through adequate rural extension processes.

In this sense, the Experimental Station "Indio Hatuey", although it had developed links to the productive sector since its beginnings, focused efforts on the promotion of innovation processes in Cuban livestock production, where the diffusion of silvopastoral systems and seed production technologies of pastures and forages throughout the country stand out, supported on projects financed by the Ministry of Agriculture. However, this extension modality was still «pushed by science», in spite of the interest shown by producers in the process, in addition to the fact that extension systems gave priority to the state sector, without considering that the farmer sector, with low input systems and based on agroecology, had a prevailing role in milk and meat production in Cuba.

In the early first decade of this millennium, the Experimental Station «Indio Hatuey» decided to make a turn in the conventional system of technological transference to promote innovation and local rural development, which demanded the change in values, principles, concepts, models and paradigms. Such approach visualized technology transference as a component of this multidimensional development.

In this sense, the Livestock Production Development Program in the Martí municipality and its portfolio of projects stood out, with an integral and participatory approach of many empowered stakeholders.

Since 2008, and to accompany the cooperative and farmer sector, the local agricultural innovation processes begin to be enhanced in Matanzas province, with the support of international cooperation, to facilitate the access to biological diversity, farmer innovation and experimentation, the agriculture-livestock production-energy integration as a way of productive diversification, as well as to achieve improvements in the soils and stimulate nutrient recycling, all of which would determine the increase of the resilience of productive systems and carbon sequestration. The promotion of local innovation systems facilitates the articulation of stakeholders and the formation of networks around food security, agroecology and climate change, with a protagonist role of producers, by revalorizing the principles of the «Farmer to farmer» methodology.

This work with the farmer sector was complemented with the start of anther international project (BIOMAS-CUBA) at the end of 2008, focused on the production of food and renewable energy in an integrated way with agroecological bases-, through anaerobic biodigestion, biomass gasification and biodiesel production from Jatropha curcas (non edible oil plant); this project is developed in several Cuban provinces.