Two old schools in the countryside, currently in disuse, are converted into poultry farms in the province of Pinewood of the river.
To this end, construction forces are working in that western Cuban territory, according to state media reports.
It is about “an experiment”, whose objective is “to validate the relevance of taking advantage of these constructions that abound throughout the country, for the production of eggs”, the official newspaper points out in this regard. Granma.
The idea arose after the passage of Hurricane Ian last September, when more than 40% of the poultry houses in the province were destroyed. To do this, “the strength of these schools and the large number of them that remain underutilized” were taken into account, he explained to Granma Pedro Luis Pino, logistics director of the Pinar del Río Poultry Company.
One of the schools that will be transformed into a farm is the old pre-university school in the Lázaro Acosta Paulín field, near the town of Briones Montoto, which will be used for quail farming.
According to official calculations, it should house some 120,000 birds and provide 24.2 million eggs annually. Breeding “will be carried out on the ground, on a layer of rice husk, on the three floors that the teaching area occupied in the school and in the four bedrooms,” the publication specifies.
In addition, the entity will have a processing center “with the purpose of adding value to the productions”, adds Granma. The completion of the work is scheduled for March 31.
The second farm, whose completion is scheduled for early May, will be located in the old Oscar Sánchez Ozuna pre-university school. It hopes to house some 53,900 laying hens in cages, similar to traditional farms, and its annual production capacity is estimated at 10.2 million eggs.
According to Pino, “in both facilities a demolition process has already been carried out, to eliminate walls and adapt the spaces to the habitat of birds.” A brigade of 60 men works on these objects of work.
“Each floor has its own layout, depending on how the buildings turned out. The spaces are being used according to the structure of each school premises, ”she explained.
In the opinion of the specialist, the project has among its advantages that the old schools are “solid constructions, much more resistant to weather events than traditional farms, whose structures are aged and their roofs are light.”
“We are always going to have the threat of hurricanes. That is why this initiative is based on that aspect, ”he pointed out.
However, Pino insisted that it is an experiment, “since the adaptation of birds to this type of space with different levels and therefore, with different temperatures and incidence of wind has yet to be confirmed in practice.”
Egg production is one of the lines most affected by the economic crisis that the island is going through. Added to this is the damage caused by meteorological events such as Ian which, in Pinar del Río alone, affected 133 of the 331 existing poultry houses in the province, of which 92 have been recovered so far, according to data cited by Granma.
