Havana - Some 130 experts and leading producers debate today the impact of climate change on agriculture, in a workshop on the sustainable handling of soils, one of the main resources to guarantee food.

The director general of the Institute of Soil Research, Luis Gomez, will inaugurate the forum in which 27 papers and master lectures will be heard, in several work commissions.

On its part, the director of Soils and Fertilizers of the Ministry of Agriculture Dagoberto Rodriguez

will present the National Program for Conservation and Improvement of Soils of the country.

The workshop will session until tomorrow at the Convention Center and for this Wednesday it also includes a master lecture of the representative in Cuba of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Theodor Friedrich, who will refer to the challenge of producing food crops under the effects of climate change.

Other master lectures will be presented on Agroecologic Innovation by Fernando R. Funes of the Experimental Station "Indio Hatuey", located 120 kilometers east of the capital and another by researcher Miriam Limia Martinez of the Center of Climate belonging to the Institute of Meteorology.

A novelty of the workshop, according to its organizers is that it will alternate the scientific exhibitions with those of leading producers in the handling of soils. According to experts, soils are the natural resource that contributes the most to mitigate climate change, by fixing nitrogen and capturing carbón from the atmosphere.

At present, about 75 percent of cultivable soils in Cuba is affected by some yield limiting factor, among them erosion, bad drainage, low fertility, salinity and insufficient humidity retention.

Recently, FAO urged in a message for the sustainable handling of this resource in the world, which it described as fundamental to reach the Sustainable Development Objectives, many of which reflect the central role of that resource for food security.