Sowing the seeds of economic revival

Havana / DPA

Carlos Caro is proud of his seed-planter: “Necessity is the mother of invention,” he says. Caro, a farmer in Cuba, assembled his machine completely out of old mechanical parts he gathered assiduously. The seeding device consists of old pipes and four inverted gas cylinders mounted on a chassis. Gravity does the rest — the weight of the seeds and the fertilizer presses them slowly out of their vessels.
Caro farms 14 hectares of farmland using his yellow seeder. It has a mini-plough in the shape of a V that cuts a furrow and two little plates to close the furrow once bean seeds and fertilizer have been dropped into it.
“The machine does everything all at the same time, and the savings are enormous,” Caro explained, adding that previously he employed 14 workers to do the work that only three do now. He estimated that manufacturing the seeding machine on an industrial scale could cost about 250 dollars apiece.
Caro’s invention is more robust than the mainly Brazilian-made agricultural machines sold in Cuba, he insisted. The Brazilian machines may look nice and are sophisticated, but they are not suitable for the hard soil in Cuba, he maintains.
“My machine may be rough, but it can be used anywhere, on any kind of soil,” he said. Caro is one of the more than 400,000 members of the Cuban Inventors’ Association (ANIR). The organization was founded in 1976 to promote the creativity of the Cuban working class. Ingenuity is sorely needed in a country where almost everything is lacking. Although the communist Caribbean island is slowly opening to the outside world and more tourists are visiting, there are always shortages in its economy. With an average monthly wage of 20 dollars, many Cubans simply have no money to buy anything new.
Oftentimes the inventions offer small solutions to daily challenges, but they also respond to needs in industry, including strategic sectors in the Cuban economy. Cuba lacks foreign exchange to purchase modern equipment abroad. Besides tourism, the country depends mainly on oil supplies from friendly Venezuela, whose own economy is now in shambles. The Caribbean island receives the oil at a preferential rate and because of that, Cuba saves foreign currency. But now, because oil prices have fallen in general, the situation has worsened. The prices obtained for sugar and nickel exports have also dropped.
Cuba also continues to be affected by the US trade embargo in force since the 1960s. In the course of the recent thaw between Washington and Havana, the economy has opened up more and more, but tools and machines still cannot readily be imported into Cuba.
Last but not least, the planned economy makes life difficult for families, farmers and entrepreneurs. If a machine breaks down, private individuals cannot just order a replacement part. Everything must be ordered by the state.
If the corresponding part is not on the shopping list — well then bad luck. Being an inventor comes in handy to solve everyday problems for Cuban families, for example when an imported fan, fridge or kettle breaks down and needs to be repaired with replacement parts made locally.
The solutions are aimed to extend the lifetime of household appliances and to replace imports, says Otto Molina, whose workshop for electrical appliances of all kinds is located in the central province of Cienfuegos.
He says proudly that his workshop has invented more than 70 homemade repair solutions, including solving problems in air conditioners, fans, electric stoves, electric rice pots and fridges. Some inventions also benefit industry. Cuba led the way in 1997 with the first horizontal oil drilling using domestic technology. Oil production increased from 200,000 tons a year to about 1 million tons total.
This horizontal drilling technology allowed Cuba to avoid having to buy expensive oil platforms from abroad, says Jesus Rio, a geologist with the state oil company Cupet in western Cuba.
The oil wells are located mainly on the northern coast from Havana to the tourist resort of Varadero, along more than 140 kilometres of coastline. From there, using a special hermetic system, engineers are able to reach into oil deposits off the coast.
For his drill, Rio was awarded the highest distinction for inventors in Cuba, given to him by former leader Fidel Castro. Vicente Hernandez has been working for 56 years works as a mechanic for the Cuban Railway Company, which he joined when he was barely 15. His invention, put together from parts lying around in the garage, is a kind of mobile testbed for locomotives. It is used to test locomotives of Russian, Chinese and US design.