For Liván Izquierdo Alonso, first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba in the province that the pineapple reigns again in Ciego de Ávila fields is a priority. Photo: Osvaldo Gutierrez

Two local development projects that strengthen ties with the community in which it is located and another that seeks to diversify pineapple production today mark the course of the Máximo Gómez Báez University of Ciego de Ávila (UNICA), for which it continues to be a challenge to contribute more to the socioeconomic development of the province.

For Doctor of Sciences Yurisbel Gallardo Ballat, rector of the Avilanian university, it is a priority to bring culture not only indoors, but also to the areas surrounding the institution, an intention thanks to which today it is planned to plant Paulownia and Stevia in a farm in the town of Modesto Reyes, with which science will reach the countryside and jobs will be generated for those who live there.

As if that were not enough, as detailed by Gallardo Ballat, the joint work with the Territory's Aqueduct Company and the Superior Organization of Business Management (OSDE) Water and Sanitation, a new aqueduct is expected to be born that, in addition to solving the old water problem that the inhabitants of the adjoining community face, will serve for the work practices of the students who study hydraulic careers.

This is how Liván Izquierdo Alonso, a member of the Central Committee of the Party and its first secretary in the province, met him, who, on a tour carried out this Wednesday morning by UNICA, made clear the importance of continuing to strengthen these ties, because "without the University we will not be able to beat for the people. We count on their accompaniment in the economic, political and social life of the territory”.

After two years in which COVID-19 forced a distance between teachers and students, the start of this school year in person brings for the "uniqueños" the satisfaction of having a modern comprehensive laboratory for water and sanitation that, born also of the relationship with the organisms, it has the part of aqueduct, treatment and disinfection, and according to the rector, it will be essential for the practices of the undergraduate students, but even more so for the postgraduate, because research is being developed that will give step to specialties, masters and doctorates.

Hopefully the same happiness will be breathed in the nurseries and cultivation houses belonging to the Bioplant Center, attached to the UNICA, where the current capacity to fine-tune vitroplants of new varieties of the queen of fruits puts a ceiling on the ambitions of the project that seeks to diversify it in a province that, as the First Secretary of the Party recognized there, "has lost a crop that is a symbol of Avilanians and we cannot afford that."

Lelurlys Nápoles Borrero, head of the Climbing and Technology Transfer Directorate at the scientific entity, announced that, as part of a CITMA territorial project, with a 5-year durability, 155,000 units of vitroplants of pineapple of four main varieties: MD-2, red Spanish, pérola and champaka, to which another 60,000 must be added this year, including the big-headed pineapple, a new variety to be introduced and of which some 30 are in the laboratory 000 units.

Given the limitations and the need to multiply these numbers, Izquierdo Alonso called for taking advantage of the agreement with the organizations and stressed the need to put the one percent contribution in order to promote projects with a high impact on the economy and the population.

But not only pineapple should reach the tables of Ciego de Ávila citizens, since the Bioplant Center also hopes that they can try the juices of La Estancia, which are now sweetened with the natural sweetener of Stevia extract from their laboratories. In addition, although they are still in the phase of testing durability over time, Napoles Borrero shows how much sugar could be saved when he details "2,000 boxes were made from 10 liters."

Close to celebrate its 44th anniversary; UNICA continues to bet on the transformation of its social environment, by placing all its scientific and cultural potential at the service of the communities.