Great article. In Pinar del Río a Habano Man of Science

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In Pinar del Río a Habano Man of Science

http://www.guerrillero.cu/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Dainarys_Campo_Montesino-100x100.pngBy Dainarys Campos Montesino

 

 February 21, 2022

 

in Pinar del Rio

 

 

 

 

 

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On the stretcher is where the harvest is decided”. It is the first sentence I receive from Servilio Jesús Córdova Torres when I go to meet him to grant me this interview.

At 70 years old, “Jesusín”, as everyone knows him, does not take his eyes off his tobacco. Perhaps it is this perseverance that earned him the title of Hombre Habano 2019 in the production category.

“I say that at the same time that one begins to collect tobacco on the stretcher, the harvest is decided in terms of mechanical damage. I go through everything that the cutters bring me, I put the tobacco in plates and I leaf through it, I take out the broken leaf. If I'm not here, my son is there, this is a job that requires constant demands and check-ups”.

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Photo: Jaliosky Ajete Rabeiro

In the area known as Barrigona, in the municipality of San Luis, Jesusín dedicates a hectare and a half to covered tobacco and a batch of 50,000 plants to sun. In addition, in two tunnels he guarantees the position of the producers of the CCS Camilo Cienfuegos, to which he belongs, and supplies a farmer from Leopoldo Troche.

 

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“In the covered area I planted Corojo 2020, a variety in the final testing period that is the result of the San Juan y Martínez Tobacco Experimental Station, created by the Master of Science Nancy Santana Ferrer; and I also planted 3,000 seedlings of the 2021 variety of Eumelio Espino Marrero, who, although retired, continues to contribute to tobacco.

“The 2020 is very resistant to all this climate change and the constant diseases that attack tobacco, specifically black leg. It grows with more vertical leaves and has a very small separation between nodes. Its colors when drying are very beautiful, the ones that really give the export layer”.

We talked in the tobacco house, which he covered inside with guano looking for a way to improve drying, since it regulates the temperature. It already showed more than 2,000 cujes harvested only foot pounds, one and a half and first light. The second light and the fine ones are taken to the kalfrisa to later finish with the fat one and the crown also in the priest's house.

 

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“In this campaign we already achieved the objective, agriculturally speaking. This tobacco comes with a very good size. It doesn't have the green stain that has been a nightmare for growers. Now it's a matter of time. I never say how much I am going to get as a cape, I always try to beat the previous year's figure, not to compete with anyone, but to beat myself in terms of results, and that's how I keep growing”.

It's been five seasons since Jesusín hasn't used barbed wire for his covering, first because of the deficit that exists and second because the wind rips the fabric. He then decided to replace it with soft wire and together with his workers designed some clips that allow them to maneuver the structure without difficulty and also protect it. "I have bales of cloth from 10 years ago."

FOLLOW THE FAMILY TRADITION

When I ask him about his beginnings in tobacco, he instantly mentions his father and summarizes his career for me in order not to neglect the task: “I have always been linked to tobacco because I was by my father's side. I was able to enroll in college after military service and then university. I became an agricultural engineer. That helped me a lot because I linked the practice that I learned with it and the theory that you get at the university.

“For a while I was working in the state sector, but without neglecting tobacco. When I lost my father, I no longer worked with the State. I came directly to La Vega, because the heritage and family tradition could not end.

“In 2008, the San Luis Tobacco Collection and Processing Company called for covered tobacco. We had always cultivated in the sun and I said 'if the sun-grown tobacco was good and with results because it worked well, then in the covered we must do the same and comply with what the technical instructions say'.

“In my first year I got a cape, when I saw that I had achieved it I knew I could continue. In the second year also and so, from that date until today, I have managed to catch up to 46 percent. Last season I had damage from the brown leg, I still haven't finished processing it, because I took it to what we call the 'reprocessing' or a reprocessing so that it ferments better.

“We have to finish for 30 or 31 percent of the layer, and it was not the best year either because I broke my foot and we started the campaign a little late, my son was alone. All of this had an influence, because tobacco forgets what you stop making green, but dry it has a memory that is marvelous”.

A GUAJIRO OF SCIENCE

According to Jesusín, the biggest mistake made by producers is not complying with what the technical instructions say, or respecting what the scientists of the National Tobacco Institute write in conjunction with the experimental stations.

“Everything is written in the little book, it was updated in 2012. There are times when we cannot do all of what it says, but if we comply with 80 or 90 percent, the results would be superior in terms of the quality with which we execute the labors

“I work a lot with science and technology, but I mostly apply biological products, because they do not affect the crops at all and they have less residue in the tobacco. I do things that maybe others don't.

In a national agroecology forum, he was nourished by the research of other producers in the country. Since then he cultivates some species that help him improve the soil.

“Moringa, for example, is very good for vegetative development, because it has an acid that stimulates growth. I also apply aloe for plant stress. When the campaign ends, I plant velvet, cowpea beans, among other legumes, and I see the results in the soil, they have the property of fixing hydrogen through a bacterium that acts on their root system.”

There is no secret in his good work, only, as he himself says, to comply with what the scientists indicate, which is what they are there for: "I harvest tobacco with two leaves, just as the plant emits it, why should I alter the process and take three or four, if two is enough? I give the field the laps that are necessary. It has given me many results.

“I like to cultivate the land with the ox or the mule, but I always use the guataca, since every time you move the soil you oxygenate it and every time you oxygenate it, the plant develops and improves in all aspects.

“Since last season I have applied the trichogram to avoid pests. In this field I have about 15 cards at a rate of 100 to 120,000 individuals in each one. It is an organism that parasitizes the insect egg and does not reproduce, and one of the most effective biological means, but I apply it on cabbage, cucumber and beans as well. I bring it from the Center for the Reproduction of Entomophages and Entopathogens (CREE) here in Barrigona.

In the middle of the field he points out a cardboard card full of black dots. As an expert in the matter, he explains that he takes a dose per hectare, but he puts a dose and a half. “It does not imply losing economically, but what it represents. I haven't smoked this tobacco since I put the cloth on it”.

SACRIFICE AWARD

“I was really surprised with the Hombre Habano award,” he tells me as emotion almost bursts from his eyelids. He had been nominated in the 2016-17 campaign, but that time Virginio Morales Novo was elected, someone who meant a lot to the history of tobacco. The next time they nominated him again and chose another person, this time from San Antonio de los Baños. Then, the third year after being nominated, he was the winner in the production category.

“I never worked for that, but it was unforgettable. The gala was at Pabexpo, when I went up to receive the award I started to cry, it was the joy of knowing how far my results had come. It is something very stimulating and it is not to arrive, but to stay”.

THE APPLE OF HER EYES

At 70 years old, he does everything in the fertile plain, or almost everything, as he himself says: “To this day I feel strong. In the tobacco house I don't climb so high, but I do all the other jobs. Unbuttoned I don't let anyone do it to me ".

And as it has been a family tradition, he has also bequeathed his son his love for the countryside. “He is a nurse and one day he wanted to dedicate himself fully to tobacco. I told him it was hard, but he wanted it that way. He really is my right arm and we have the possibility of being two people who love what they do”.

Some years ago she assured a colleague that tobacco was the apple of her eye. And there is nothing more true, she can tell when she sees him jealously caress the leaves like the most precious treasure. This is Jesusín, one of the Havana men who make Vueltabajo the land of the best tobacco in the world.