NEEM in CUBA

In 1996 we were a GMO Free, 100% organic, UK4 Soil Association Oregon Tilth certified company located in Durham, looking at Cuba as an organic supply line. NEEM was established in Durham at that time as an activist organization promoting neem in sustainable agriculture. We worked outside the USA in the equatorial belt countries where neem grows and the people impoverished (Latin basin, African diaspora & Central America). We promoted neem as a biological, naturally occurring, yearly harvest-able alternative to chemical inputs in agriculture and an answer to Malaria, Dengue, AIDS and numerous maladies that included potential for economic development. Countries that were codependent on gifted chemicals for agriculture and medicine, neither of which they could afford (as they remain today). Our objective was self reliance where we worked and opening production capability. We engaged with the Cuban's and their Neem Project director. 

Our company was organic but we were global, environmentally this was an issue. We learned about the new agricultural urban program during this time in Cuba where we encouraged use of neem. The global market exposure was our re-visit to how organic we really were and subsequently adopted a "local" mentality replicating the Cuban model as we do today at NEEM. We applaud the Cubans for staying on top of infrastructure required and thank them for all they have done for us.

Is neem an answer to global issue, we think so, we always have!  

Biofactory built for neem insecticide

Written by AIN

Guantanamo. - Biofactory to produce insecticide from the neem tree is built in the arid coastal strip south of Guantanamo, where blooms the plant, known as the toothbrush of indigenous peoples.

Among its many uses, this bush scientific name Azadirachta indica A. Juss, is used for cleaning and brushing of the teeth in the Asian and African continents, where it is common to see their native inhabitants with a small slice, for oral bacterial infection.

But in Guantanamo priority will be its use as a biological insecticide, mainly in the planting of vegetables, meats and fruit Caujerí Valley, said today the engineer Soraya García Pavón, for a series of conferences and scientific panels that develops in this city, in salute to July 26.

Neem provides the substance called azadirachtin, which interferes with the metamorphosis of the larvae of insect pests, and therefore the reproduction of these in the areas planted, said the specialist at the Center for Applied Research for Sustainable Development (CATEDES).

He said that that is the result of biofactory international collaborative project funded by the Cuban government, supported by the Small Grants Programme of the Global Environment.

Its production will favor more than 1300 hectares of the valley, which benefit from August 2010 to one of the waterworks in the country: the diversion of the river to the dam Sabanalamar Pozo Azul.

For over five years, the introduction of Nim increased forested area in the arid coastal strip south of Guantanamo, where hundreds of hectares have been enriched by this plant, several species associated with timber and fruit.

That task was the work of the Sector to Combat Desertification and Drought CATEDES subordinate entity.

The initiative to host the semi-desert landscape to the Nim tree is considered by environmental experts as one of the outstanding achievements of the scientific community Guantanamo.