June 2024.- Since his time, in the nineteenth century, Jose Martí He stressed the importance of using science in agriculture as a basic formula for improving and sustaining productive results and preserving natural resources.
The apostle of Cuban independence, with that worldview typical of his thought, warned that young people committed to agricultural work should receive a careful education because in his opinion “Agriculture is incomplete without the use of education.”
In this regard, he was wondering “How can you choose the best plow if you do not know its different types? How can you repair the land if the characteristics of that resource are not known?”
The Cuban national hero also stressed that “the farmer needs to know the nature of plants, their diseases, whims and strange behaviors, in order to direct the crop in a way that takes advantage of the plant’s powers and avoids placing it in the wrong place.” He needs to fall in love with his work, and find it, as it is, nobler than any other, if only because it permits the most direct exercise of the mind, and by its rich and constant results affords a steady and free income. Which allows a person to live decently and independently.
José Martí taught in defense of the values of scientific research in the field of food production. It is necessary to listen to his voice when he confirmed this “You must not think that every recommended fertilizer is good, for every handful of soil has its own composition. And since irreparable damage can come from fertilizing the land with certain substances, the farmer should not, without first testing it on a small area of land, To decide to use an unknown product on his crops.
How much vision? How certain is it and how true is Martí's warning, and how contradictory it is with the reality of the country and this municipality, when it is known from official sources, the insufficient progress in the application of science and innovation in the agricultural field and the rare use of agricultural extension, agroecology, animal traction and bioproducts.
Moreover, the presentation of projects and the search for sources of financing, investment and external cooperation that support the implementation of agri-food programs are insufficient.
If we agree with Marty, and continue to the present, we must analyze how much can be done under the current conditions to increase effectiveness and efficiency in our fields, with greater science and awareness, with the aim of embodiment, on the basis of individual intelligence. And collectively, the food and nutrition security and sovereignty that Floridians demand in these critical times.
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