Cuban tobacco growers’ effort to reverse late start of 2020-2021 campaign recognized

Justo Luis Fuentes Díaz, president of the Tabacuba Business Group, insisted on technological discipline so that successes in agricultural production have continuity in the industry. Photo: Pedro Paredes Hernández.

The effort made by tobacco growers across the country to reverse the late start of the 2020-21 campaign was recognized by Justo Luis Fuentes Díaz, president of Grupo Empresarial Tabacuba, on a tour of nightshade growing areas in Pinar del Río.

45 days after sowing, Reynier Rojas’ 20,000 tobacco seedlings turned into spiky plants, with large, healthy leaves and an intense green that predict a good result when the moment of collection arrives.

In the fertile plain of this producer, associated with the Gervasio Hernández credit and services cooperative (CCS), Fuentes highlighted the vegetative health of the field, held an exchange with the harvester about harvesting methods and insisted on the importance of this process, to that the work carried out in agricultural care should not be ruined by mismanagement.

The advantages of the Corojo 99 variety, of high yield and resistance, was another of the topics addressed in the dialogue, as well as the need to combine mastery of science with the empirical wisdom accumulated by the vegueros because there are many decisions that are based on visual perception and experience.

The vegueros of Pinar del Río continue planting to take advantage of the favorable weather conditions that accompany them for the moment. Photo: Pedro Paredes Hernández.

No less splendid are the 50 thousand plants of Jorge Plasencia, belonging to the same production structure, one of the two specialized in capping within the Pinar del Río Tobacco Collection and Benefit Company (ABT), there Fuentes called to increase the areas destined to this modality, as it is the one that ensures the obtaining of layers for the twisting of cigars destined for export.

He pointed out that after the late start of the campaign, the response of farmers, technicians, specialists and the state sector has been excellent, therefore there are positions to continue sowing until February. Likewise, he acknowledged that despite the month and a half run, good results are foreseen in the quantitative and qualitative order, both in the province and in the rest of the country.

The Pinar del Río municipality will plant 2,400 hectares (ha) and 220 of them are covered, which should be completed in the first half of January and a month later the entire plan.

Regarding the Ordering Task and the concerns expressed by the peasants about the increase in the price of inputs, he ratified that it is a process under construction and that 149 concerns associated with Agriculture are being addressed, that they will carry out the necessary reviews and trusts that this will have a positive effect on tobacco production.

The splendor of the plantations foresees good quantitative and qualitative results in the 2020-21 campaign. Photo: Pedro Paredes Hernández.