Use of pesticides reduced 20-fold
 in last 15 years
• The development of biological means, reproduction of pests’ natural enemies and integral management of crops has made it possible to develop a virtually clean agriculture

BY RAISA PAGES —Granma International staff writer—

EVERY year, between one and five million cases of poisoning through pesticides are reported, with lethal effects for several thousand people, including children.

However, people are not only contaminated through direct contact with these chemicals, but also by ingesting foodstuffs obtained through the elevated use of pesticides.

Generally speaking, these products remain as residues in foodstuffs. When they enter the human body, through the digestive system, they accumulate in different areas until they surpass the early stages and trigger off disease.

It has been proved that these chemicals cause cancer, infertility, impotence, and malformations of the urinary and reproductive systems, amongst other health problems.

In Cuba, research and investment into obtaining bio-pesticides has intensified since 1985. This knowledge and infrastructure permitted the country to reduce the volume of pesticides employed during the economic crisis of the 1990s. In 1989, the island used around 20,000 tons of pesticides for various crops. These chemical products were mostly imported from the former Eastern European socialist camp.

The lack of financial resources to obtain products from other markets was not the only reason for the turn towards environmentally friendly agriculture and reduced usage of toxins. Cuban scientists held the belief that those chemicals brought with them other problems by altering the equilibrium of agricultural eco-systems. They would control one pest, but then a more virulent one would appear.

With the employment of six lines of bio-pesticides (beneficial fungi and bacteria that do away with the cause of disease) and the reproduction of insects that eliminate various predators, toxic substances had been reduced to just 5,482 tons in 1995.

Nowadays, in 2004, just over 1,000 tons are used for various agricultural crops. That is to say, 20-fold less than 15 years ago (1989).

The minimum quantities that are now employed in the island’s agriculture are set aside for potato, tobacco, and banana crops in order to coexist with potentially devastating pests that were introduced deliberately as part of the U.S. government’s biological war on Cuba.

Initially, bio-pesticides and beneficial insects were reproduced in laboratories located throughout the country and staffed by specialized technical personnel, but demand has exceeded the production expectations of these units.

With the incorporation of thousands of producers into urban agriculture and the transformation of thousands of hectares of sugar cane to other crops, the need for bio-pesticides and beneficial insects has risen to an unexpected level.

But as nature is the response, non-toxic or organic agriculture has transcended the frontiers of the laboratory to become experimentation in the field. Agriculturists are discovering plants that act as insect repellents and that possess properties to destroy harmful microorganisms such as fungi, bacteria, or parasites. Beneficial insects are also being bred on city farms using local resources.

Amongst Cuba’s native and exotic flora exist plants that possess active components with which natural pesticides or those of botanical origin can be prepared, without having to resort to a specialized infrastructure.

Such is the case with the Nim tree and other plants such as chinaberry, tobacco, chrysanthemum, Muerto flower, prickly pear, Florido pine, crabwood, custard apple, indigo and the ashen hoarypea tree, amongst others.

"These are neither chemical or biological products that fight against pests, but alternative ways of managing a crop," confirmed Dr. Emilio Fernández, deputy director of the Institute of Plant Health Research.

During meetings with agriculturists, experts have learnt of other options: traps to attract harmful insects and stores of "good bugs" which eat the bad ones, those known as natural enemies of pests.

There are fungi, bacteria and beneficial insects that also eliminate pests. Finding and saving the good ones in order to combat the bad has become normal practice for Cuban producers thanks to the training they have received from various institutes, including the Institute of Plant Health Research, the leader in the program of extensionism.

One can eat a cabbage in Cuba safe in the knowledge that it was cultivated without the use of chemicals, he remarked. This vegetable is harvested without any chemical whatsoever. All the vegetables obtained through organic agriculture are safe, because the use of pesticides is prohibited as the crops are planted close to towns and cities.

With a diverse range of plants, producers are ready to act against "enemy troops". In Songo La Maya – a coffee-growing region in the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba – they prepare a brew known as "hediondo" from sweet potato to combat the Broca bug that attacks coffee bushes. In the same region, some campesinos have invented a machine to blow smoke into ants’ nests to asphyxiate them without using any expensive products or petrol. In Matanzas, there are even agriculturists who have experimented and managed to harvest potatoes with a minimum amount of chemical products.

With minimum use of chemical products, Cuban agriculture coexists with such dangerous pests as Thrips palmi, and black Sigatoka or black leaf streak on banana plants.