Food production and health are matters to which the scientific community of this province paid special attention during the confrontation with the COVID-19.
Las Tunas, Cuba.- The researchers provided concrete solutions to various problems, according to statements by Gisela Olano Felipe, territorial delegate of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment (CITMA).
“The Defense Council gave us the task of working on the impact of food production, and we created a multidisciplinary group that was in charge of the subject. A diagnostic survey was carried out on the production bases of the elements that can contribute at higher yields and we presented results and novel practical ideas and others that were old, but had been discarded, such as chaining the local industry in the elaboration of rustic agricultural implements,” explained the delegate.
She made reference to the introduction and generalization of scientific results and projects in the agricultural sector, as well as the close relationship with leading producers from all localities. Likewise, they intend to articulate all the sectors, join with the Municipal University Centers, in order to build a strategy that visualizes the municipality as the central axis of local development.
She also said that "we activated the Social Sciences Council, which had active participation together with the Ministry of Health, in the fight against the pandemic and we work on the issue of biological security, vital in the current context, developing a diagnosis of our isolation centers and hospitals.”
Olano Felipe announced that they are currently updating the Danger, Vulnerability and Risk studies, especially in relation to the new methodology being built. The purpose is to see the epidemic as one of the greatest risks the country is facing and it aims at an integrated vision of the consequences on people, animals, and the environment, and they call it "One Health.”
The CITMA System in Las Tunas continues to be immersed in the strategic lines of science, innovation, the environment, and natural resources, as well as its fundamental priorities. One of them is the fight against desertification and drought, based on the negative indicators of the province, one of the most deforested in the country and with very low rainfall rates.
It is evaluated from the science, how to face this problem with actions that mitigate its effects. Various actors are integrated into this task, such as the state forestry service, the ranger corps and, in a very broad way, the Agriculture sector, as sustainable land management is one of the essential issues on which they focus.
