When in his self-defense plea History Will Absolve Me, Fidel exposes with total objectivity, among others, the pressing land problem, it was already clear to him that the matter would not be solved only by eliminating the large estates and giving the land "to the five hundred thousand rural workers who live in the miserable huts, who work four months a year and go hungry the rest..." or "to the hundred thousand small farmers, who live and die working a land that is not theirs...".
Therefore, the proclamation of the Agrarian Reform, on May 17, 1959, not only closed a painful chapter, but also opened the way to a colossal undertaking.
Fidel's childhood in the agricultural or productive family environment of Biran; his readings of José Martí on the subject, and his irrevocable determination to free Cuba from all its ties, in all fields, had shown him for a long time, the imperious need to extract the greatest possible fruit from the land in terms of feeding the people and the national economy, on the basis of new techniques. To this purpose he would dedicate, since then, all his intelligence, energy, passion, days, nights and early mornings.
On the way to the centenary of his birth, what many people (in Cuba and around the world) continue to wonder is how, having had a professional training centered on law, Fidel was able to venture with such breadth, depth and rigor into the complex agricultural universe.
Nor was he trained in the fields of medical science, sports, culture, biotechnology, international relations or education... and experts in those branches ended up bowing, in respectful reverence, before his vast knowledge.
HATUEY... A MILESTONE
Although since the very revolutionary triumph Fidel maintained a permanent link with Cuban agriculture, his interaction with the Experimental Station of Pastures and Forages Indio Hatuey, in Matanzas, whose origins date back to 1962, is well known.
Passionate, as for everything, by that time the Commander-in-Chief was already conducting his own tests and experiments in plots of land near Havana, an experience that led him to suggest the creation of the aforementioned entity, to study on a scientific basis everything related to livestock feeding, based on the use of pastures and fodder of his own.
As recalled by Mesa Redonda TV program dedicated to those matters on August 15, 2017, it was not by chance that, at the time of 1963, during a plenary on livestock, Fidel stated; "The day we have solved the problem of feed and we do not have to import it, and based on pastures and things that we sow in the farms we can feed the cattle, we will have removed a big problem, we will have taken a big step forward and we will have unlimited possibilities of development".
The pillars on which Fidel laid the foundations for the development of agriculture and livestock farming were not limited to Indio Hatuey. The creation, in 1965, of the National Center for Scientific Research (CNIC, for its Spanish acronym), basically dedicated to the development of medical and agricultural sciences, was clearing a terrain that would also count on the specialized vision of institutes such as the Animal Science Institute (ICA, for its Spanish acronym) and the Institute of Agricultural Sciences (INCA, for its Spanish acronym), also born that year.
Obviously, these institutions would be decisive in promoting agricultural and livestock development in a country that, not by chance, reached a herd of more than seven million head of cattle in 1967, and a production that surpassed 900 million liters of milk.
The role of the Commander-in-chief in the introduction of artificial insemination, the training of technicians in this activity and the creation of conditions to generalize it throughout the archipelago is often mentioned.
It would be necessary to see how many or which statesmen of the world could, at that time (and even up to our days) talk, as he did in 1969, when visiting the "Niña Bonita" Genetic Experimental Plan, about pure science in cattle breeding, milking mechanization, sanitary measures, integral management, and even about Rosafé: a healthy bull that the country imported for 27,000 dollars and that was capable of producing 22,000 doses of semen for artificial insemination.
THE SOVEREIGNTY THAT TODAY WE ARE RAISING
It would seem that terms or concepts such as food sovereignty, municipal or local self-sufficiency, autonomy, etc., have only recently appeared. A glance at the Comandante's work in the field of agriculture is enough to see how they form an essential part of his vision.
By the way, along with his numerous speeches and interventions in congresses, scientific events, anniversaries of organizations and institutions, the reader can count on a magnificent thematic selection framed between 1959 and 1996, published by Editora Política, under the title Fidel Castro, la agricultura en Cuba (Fidel Castro, Agriculture in Cuba), structured in three volumes dedicated to agronomy, the first; to agriculture and livestock, the second; and to agrarian policy, the third.
Although it is impossible to summarize his vast work in this field, it is worth mentioning the links he maintained with three important scientific centers in Villa Clara: the National Institute of Tropical Vegetables Research (INIVIT, for its Spanish acronym), the Center for Bioactive Chemicals (CBQ, for its Spanish acronym), and the Institute of Plant Biotechnology (IBP, for its Spanish acronym).
The late Dr. Sergio Rodríguez Morales, director of INIVIT and Labor Hero of the Republic of Cuba, would evoke several times Fidel's insistence to be able to "diversify plant studies, search for the best seeds, establish genetic improvement patterns, computerize the center, make our research multidisciplinary...".
He has always given no less importance to the Alejandro de Humboldt Institute for Fundamental Research in Tropical Agriculture, officially recognized in 1976, although with a trajectory that places it as the oldest in Spanish-speaking America.
The Liliana Dimitrova Horticultural Research Institute was also born with his imprint, just as it is impossible to ignore his link with the Institute of Plant Health, the basis for the country to have a network that exceeded 200 entomophagous and entomopathogenic production centers, with three bio-pesticide production plants.
In the opinion of Theodor Friedrich, FAO representative in Cuba, the intervention of the Commander in Chief at the World Food Summit in Rome, 1996, set the tone for the solution to face and solve the problem of hunger.
MORINGA, MULBERRY AND A PITIRRE
The efforts of the historical leader of the Revolution in the search for new protein sources (plants) to feed livestock, especially in the midst of prolonged droughts and other natural adversities, are well known. Varieties such as moringa and mulberry come to mind.
This is well known by Omar González Santamaría, a name that Dr. Concepción Campa gave Fidel when talking to him about moringa.
Soon Fidel contacted him and asked him questions for a long time. Days later he called me again," Omar recalls, "and told me: now ask me everything you want to know about moringa.
Therefore, well into his old age, Fidel did not miss a step, from the Cuban capital, to El Pitirre farm, in the Pinar del Río geography, scene of an experience that would integrate four other units from Havana and Mayabeque, considered one of the last scientific undertakings of the Commander-in-Chief.
As stated in the article Las últimas tierras que Fidel sembró (The Last Plantations By Fidel), published by our newspaper (May 4, 2021), the project foresaw a line for the cultivation of protein plants such as moringa, mulberry, tithonia and cratylia, in order to reduce the country's expenses in the purchase of products such as corn and soybeans.
MASTER
There should not be a single activity, work, area or sphere associated with agriculture (various crops, viands, grains, fruits, fruits, vegetables, vegetables...) and livestock (cattle, horses, sheep, goats, poultry, rabbits...) in which there is not the seal, the wisdom of Fidel.
In 1992, when closing a scientific event for the 30th anniversary of the Academy of Sciences, he commented: "you sow rice in Pinar del Rio in July and you harvest a third of the rice you would have harvested sowing in January, February and March. And there in Granma province you get a good yield sowing in August. You are amazed by these phenomena".
No, Commander... the one who astonished is an entire people wondering where he found the time to extract the juice from the land, in the form of those fruits that we still need so much today, in this very complex economic situation.
