Chapter 4 - Organic manures and biofertilizers

Table 26 Organic manures applied in urban agriculture in 2000
County	Organic manures	Average rate
County	('000 m³)	(t/ha)
Pinar del Río	181	168
La Habana	142	102
Ciudad Habana	69	58
Matanzas	87	143
Villa Clara	193	260
Cienfuegos	81	115
Sancti Spíritus	89	119
Ciego de Ávila	44	52
Camagüey	62	119
Las Tunas	106	149
Holguín	444	308
Granma	84	102
Stgo. De Cuba	84	69
Guantánamo	16	37
Isla de la Juventud	4	54
Total	1 686	135

Due to economic constraints, one of the measures taken by farmers to increase production is to apply organic manures. Table 26 shows the amounts applied in urban agriculture. The amounts of organic manures applied to sugar cane and those of two main products, worm humus and compost, are shown in Table 27.

There has been a consistent increase in the two main products, worm humus and compost. The trend to recycle nutrients and to use all available sources of organic material is expected to continue. There is a large-scale programme to this end, involving all the country's municipalities.

The search for alternative sources to replace the deficit of mineral fertilizers included the use of a number of products based on micro-organisms (Tables 28 and 29). Existing fermentors in sugar mills and other industrial plants were used for this purpose. Their use reached a high point during the crisis period of 1993 to 1995, since when there has been an appreciable reduction, except in the case of Rhizobium (Table 30).

Mycorrhizal fungi have been used on coffee with very good results.

Table 27 Organic materials applied to sugar cane ('000 tonnes)
Year	All	Worm humus	Compost
1997	1 163	26	454
1998	1 001	33	563
1999	2 020	43	754
2000	2 535	64	1 049
2001	4 101	145	1 340
Note: excludes urban agriculture. Source: Department of Fertilizers, MINAG.

Tables 28 Use of Azotobacter on crops other than sugar cane
Years	Quantity	Area
Years	('000 litres)	('000 ha)
1993	3 372	-
1994	1 667	66
1995	648	24
1996	712	29
1997	227	73
1998	266	11
1999	190	67
2000	45	25

Table 29 Use of Fosforin on crops other than sugar cane
Years	Quantity	Area
Years	('000 litres)	('000 ha)
1993	-	-
1994	175.0	7.2
1995	72.5	2.9
1996	153.5	7.2
1997	68.3	2.6
1998	70.9	2.7
1999	48.1	1.6
2000	77.2	3.1

Table 30 Use of Rhizobium on crops other than sugar cane
Years	Quantity	Area
Years	('000 tonnes)	('000 ha)
1993	8.3	10.7
1994	13.9	22.6
1995	9.8	16.3
1996	13.2	14.7
1997	14.7	19.1
1998	11.5	11.0
1999	9.6	8.6
2000	14.8	14.2