Guantanamo.- In Guantánamo, sowing plantain trees using extra-dense technology, is aimed at achieving high yields per area. The banana field will reach 400 hectares (ha) this year, of which just over 70 have already been planted.
In addition to the capital municipality of Guantanamo, the municipalities of El Salvador, San Antonio del Sur, Niceto Pérez, Manuel Tames, and Imías are participating in this important program; the first two have the largest plantations, with 160 and 100 ha, respectively.
José Francisco Saiz Machado, head of the Agricultural Department at the Territorial Delegation of Agriculture, reported that Azcuba is also participating, with ten hectares, and that the peak planting months will be August, September, and October, with yields estimated at no less than 70 tons per hectare.
He added that the FHIA-04, FHIA-21, and Guantanamo Dwarf clones will be promoted, all of which are high-yielding and in demand by the population. He specified that some of the seeds will be in-vitro plants obtained from biofactories in this and other provinces, and others will be obtained through asexual propagation (offshoots) from existing plantations.
The entities involved in the program include Credit and Service Cooperatives, individual producers linked to agricultural enterprises in the municipalities, and the micro-irrigation systems in Yateritas and Imías.
Among the technological requirements is rigorous land preparation, which includes using a land plane (rail) to level the terrain; The use of organic matter, reduced planting density, consistent moisture without waterlogging, and the inability to intercrop with other plants are key procedures. Suckers are left to develop once the shoots begin to emerge. The area is kept clean and the harvest is completed in a single cut.
Producers like José Manuel Dorado (Chichito), from the Enrique Campos Caballero Credit and Services Cooperative in La Jabilla, and Jorge Fernández Omaña, in the municipality of El Salvador, among others, are at the forefront of this type of planting in the province.
