La Frutabomba is the name of the farm where Javier Espinosa Escobar is dedicated to planting fruit trees and diversified with various crops. It is a little more than five hectares that constitute a haven where this cultured man in agroecological work finds peace every day, despite the mosquitoes, the scorching sun, and the hard work in the furrow.
Las Tunas, Cuba.- It is an area that invites you to walk through it, to admire the crops, the coconut trees that seem to greet the visitor and offer fresh water, rich in minerals and pleasant to the palate; to take some big and green Persian lemons, guavas and cherries. Further on, a little farther away, corn, donkey bananas, and sweet potatoes.
"We take advantage of intercropping and crop association to get higher yields in small areas, and at the same time harvest a variety of products."
Faced with drought, pests, and lack of fertilizers, Javier, as a specialist in agroecology at the National Small Farmers Association Delegation in Manatí, studies the soils, which in his case he already knows by heart.
"Each producer must know his land, what its physical and chemical properties are, and on that basis always work with agroecology, which is fundamental because it provides the farmer with alternatives such as the use of animal traction, organic fertilizers, bio-preparations based on products that can control pests and diseases."
This is a family farm, and that has its advantages, because "there have never been any problems of any kind between my brothers and my nephews. By agreement, we dedicate ourselves to deliver the productions to the State, to the “placita” and the points of sale of the cooperative, the mini-industry, and the social consumption of the municipality of Manatí, and that satisfies us."
In addition to taking care of his farm, which belongs to the Gonzalo Falcón credit and services cooperative, Javier works intensively as an agroecology specialist, for which he has formed a group of facilitators in the other productive forms of the municipality, and through them they develop exchanges of experiences with the producers, recognizing the farms that stand out in the activity.
For all these reasons Javier is happy in "La Frutabomba," the farm that gives him and takes away his sleep, where he feels at ease despite the hard work in the field, the plagues of mosquitoes, and the sun that scorches every day.
