Camagüey will welcome presentation of first Cuban variety of biofortificade rice

With the name of IACUBA-30, a new variety of biofortificade rice will have its presentation the day 19 of this month in the municipality of Florida, like part of the international project Agrosalud where intervene the International Center of Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) of Colombia and the Canadian Agency of International Development (CIDA).

The Integral Program for the Prevention of the Anemia in Cuba impelled the identification of rich varieties in iron and zinc, with special significance in the populational segment of pregnant and children; and after the genetic improvement and the identification of these characteristics in the IACUBA-30, expanded it cultivation in the whole county of Camagüey starting since the 2003.

Inside the Project of Extension of Varieties of Low Inputs, for its good agronomic , industrial and gustatory characteristic, quickly was accepted by the farmers, constituting a social productive impact.

As other utilities, its exploitation for the transplant method brought other additional advantages as its high adaptation to saline floors, characteristic not checked in the previous studies, superior yields after the miller and few requirements as for the use of chemical fertilizers for each hectare of the gramineous .

The biofortification is a fitoimprovement technique that takes advantage of the natural genetic diversity in the content of present nutrients in cultivations to increase its nutritious level. This procedure allows to make crossings among different varieties to achieve new with the characteristics of interest.

In these moments the Cuban biofortificade variety is disseminated in eight municipalities with highlights special for Minas, Camagüey, Santa Cruz del Sur and Nuevitas, being that of more growth in the popular, as long as other denominated rice, are low specialized cultivation.


The launching of the variety IACUBA-30 constitutes the first activity of this nature that will be carried out in the country with international character and also, represents a primicy inside the region with the participation of international entities as the FAO, the World Program of Foods (PMA), the UNICEF, the CIAT and the CIDA.

The regional project Agrosalud, for Latin America and the Caribbean, aspires to reduce the malnutrition and to improve the nutritional alimentary security in the area by means of the consumption of biofortificades cultivation sike the rice, beans, sweet potato and corn. So far this plan is developed in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru and Dominican Republic. (Oreidis Pimentel Pérez)