Harvesting beautiful white onions in the Cuban semi-desert is a privilege in these days of Marciano Cala Matos, a landowner of San Antonio del Sur, with results that reaffirms Marti’s quote: “the land is good if the man is good too.”
Harvesting beautiful white onions in the Cuban semi-desert is a privilege in these days of Marciano Cala Matos, a landowner of San Antonio del Sur, with results that reaffirms Marti’s quote: “the land is good if the man is good too.”
To this retired man from the then Municipal Warehouse Enterprise, a few years ago he was given the area by Decree-Law 300 in the rugged area of Los Ciguatos, about two kilometers west of the chief town, with the task of developing forestry and possibly the production of various crops and sheep farming.
"To make the property useful that before belonged to cattle industry, it demanded sharpening axes and machetes well, in order to remove thorny plants (known here as pink pasture), which covered all the area," says Marciano, who appreciates the support of family and friends in the arduous task of clearing.
But making the farm produce on this rocky land, where there’s no rain most of the year, it also required to ensure water for crop irrigation and household consumption.
Then the solution was to take the pick and shovel, among other rustic tools, and began to sink a well. "We strive to get the water where it was, and with that chop decision we continue sinking until and found it 12 meters deep,” the farmer says.
Secured the water, the new problem was storage. To achieve that goal Marciano built a 29 cubic- meter-capacity- concrete- tank. .
Since the existence of both works, the precious liquid has never been a problem in the Cúrbana, the name the farmer gave to his property, due to the 14 species of this medicinal plant scattered on the ground.
Also known as white cinnamon, this endangered species in the area, is used as a condiment, a tonic and macerated in alcohol as a rubbing lotion against rheuma, Mireya Noa Moreira, wife of the farmer, explains and according to him, she is his right- hand-woman on the farm, which was awarded with National Reference Condition in 2013 by the National Group of Urban and Suburban Agriculture.
Apart from cooking, Mireya is also responsible for raising sheep, turkeys, chickens and pigs in smaller numbers, even more she clears, cultivates vegetables and plants fruit trees and timber, commends our interviewee, adding that due to his wife’s performance during the last year, they sold 40 sheep to the state.
Of the 13.4 hectares of total are of the Cúrbana Farm, 12.6 are devoted to forestry, in which they plant the most indigenous species such as lignum vitae and the hawk. The other priority is the planting of fruit (guava, soursop, sugar apple, avocado, coconut and plum).
The rest of the possession (0.8 hectare) is devoted to various crops, mainly to the production of vegetables, preferably for lettuce, beans, cucumbers, beets and white onions now, the first harvest and sold directly to the population on the fairs of the municipality, at retail price of five Cuban pesos a bunch of two pounds.
Asking him about his farming experience prior to given him the idle land, Marciano ensures that virtually none, unless those acquired as a boy in Puriales de Caujerí with his father Marcelino Cala Ramirez, a delegate for the area to the Farmers in Arms Congress, held in Mayari Arriba, on September 21, 1958.
I have learmt along the way, working hard, following the experiences of other farmers and paying attention to agronomists' advice, concludes the member of the basic cooperative production unit 28 de Enero.
Source: Granma
Translation: Liubis Balart Martínez