CAMAGÜEY.- What a character this Ladislao! Joker, talkative and witty are three qualities that you cannot omit when characterizing this farmer in body and soul. He talks about his things like telling a story. He never gets tired of talking, and from there he has developed impressive dramatic qualities.
“Over there in the Urabo hill, north of the municipality of Florida, in this vast Camagüey, I was born on June 27, 1947. Every year of my life – which aren´t a few – I have devoted to the field. I declare myself a lover and preserver of nature, devoted follower of the ideas of Martí and a proud villager, because I think my village in the best place in the world”.
The minstrel vocation in Ladislao García Acosta has helped him in his work as a trainer and facilitator of the agro-ecological movement From Farmer to Farmer in the Cooperative of Credit and Services (CCS) José Antonio Echeverría.
“I like to go around the farms explaining and demonstrating the good results that can be obtained once applied the agro-ecology. I can have personal accomplishments, but the way to succeed in life is not by being a lone ranger, and especially not at this times. That is why you need collaboration, participation, and collective work, which is why I go out to share what I´ve learned.
“In my CCS the training is done often. We work mainly on livestock and now we are working on bringing in protein plants for feeding the animals, the wild shepherding system, in seizing organic matter and in using the wastes of sugar cane and rice for making hay during droughts.
“We can change the face of our livestock farming with the agro-ecology, and without bringing in anything from outside, I can assure that. The farmers have to understand the need for planting more live cultures in the fences to provide shade for the animals and promote protein plants. We cannot longer raise livestock in an extensive way, it has to be intensive and that way they will produce more. We, the people from Camagüey, cannot live without cow milk. Well, we can say that they are our second mothers”.
This Florida´s citizen, savant of nature talks mystically about the influence of the moon phases in the crops and the tricks for cutting cassava stems or sweet potato roots to accomplish better results. He has a certainty: “The farmer is the true scientist of the land, because he lives on it. The others are just learning. There are secrets of nature unknown by researchers, but known by the farmers”.
- Translated by Elianna Díaz Mendieta
- Corrected by Linet Acuña Quilez