TAGUASCO, Cuba, Dec 12 (IPS) – The integrated use clean energies enables Finca del Medio, a farm in main Cuba, to exercise a unique system of household farming manufacturing that assures self-sufficiency based upon permaculture, agroecology and treatment of the atmosphere.
For 3 years, 65-year-old farmer José Antonio Casimiro and his household have actually been using advancements to benefit from the solar, wind, hydraulic and biomass possibility on their 13-hectare farm in the community of Taguasco in the main Cuban district of Sancti SpÃritus.
Casimiro and his spouse Mileidy RodrÃguez, likewise 65, cleared up in 1993 with their kids Leidy and José Antonio – Chavely was birthed a year later on – on their concerned grandparents’ farm and started functioning to turn around the degeneration of the framework and dirt disintegration.
The household, that survive on the farm besides the oldest little girl, is presently self-dependent in rice, beans, bulbs, veggies, milk, eggs, honey, meat, fish and fruit. Of the standard foods, they just need to purchase sugar and salt, and the excess they generate is marketed in bordering locations.
They likewise advertise education and learning and awareness-raising on great farming and ecological techniques, on the socials media.
At Finca del Medio, a variety of day-to-day procedures are sustained by clean resources such as electrical power generation, illumination, supply of water, watering and water home heating, in addition to food preparation, dehydration and drying out of foods, and cooking and refrigeration of food.
The farmer commented that the farm creates the matching of around 20 kilowatt hours (kWh) from a mix of several innovations and advancements that make use of the possibility of clean power resources.
If just traditional electrical power were utilized for their tasks, it would certainly cost them around 10,000 pesos (83 bucks) each month, he stated.
Their 28 photovoltaic panels, which generate concerning 8 kWh, enhanced the power for water collection, watering and supply, while 3 solar heating units make certain warm water for residential demands such as showering.
The hydraulic ram makes use of the water stress itself as the only power to remove it from a dam with an ability of 55,000 cubic meters, pipeline it to a container at the greatest component of the farm, and from there the incline is utilized for watering by gravity, or to load the pets’ water troughs.
Next to the kitchen area, 2 fixed-dome biodigesters offer biogas, gotten from the anaerobic disintegration of pet manure, plant waste and also house sewer.
Due to a decline in the quantity of manure, just one of the biodigesters is running, which supplies concerning 7 meters of biogas daily, sufficient for food preparation, cooking and drying out food.
The cutting-edge household created a system to remove – without clearing the fish pond of water or quiting biogas manufacturing – from all-time low the solids utilized as biofertilizers, in addition to thousands of litres of effluent for fertigation (a mix of natural plant foods and water) of the plants, by gravity.
The setup of the biodigesters, the photovoltaic panels and among the solar heating units was sustained by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (Cosude) and the Indio Hatuey Experimental Station of Pastures and Forages with its Biomass-Cuba job, Casimiro stated.
The agro-ecological trendsetter likewise highlighted the relate to various other clinical organizations such as the Integrated Center for Appropriate Technologies, in the main district of Camagüey, which is concentrated on using services to the demands of supply of water and ecological cleanliness, and played a necessary function in the setup of the hydraulic ram.
The household likewise has 2 windmills and a reliable range that makes use of fire wood, coconut coverings and various other waste to prepare food, dry out fruits and seasonings, warmth water and deal with meats for conservation.
Casimiro favors integrating renewable resource resources right into farming procedures. But in his point of view, “More incentives, better policies and financial support are needed so that farming families have sufficient energy for their work and can improve the comfort of their homes and quality of life.”
Clean resources make up just 5 percent of electrical power generation in this Caribbean island chain of 11 million residents.
The federal government considers it an issue of nationwide safety to change the nationwide power mix, which is extremely based on nonrenewable fuel source imports and struck by intermittent power shortages.
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