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Workers from the Granma Agricultural Workshops Company have developed a biomass stove intended for drying rice using the combustion of husks —the byproduct of the grain's processing— which official media tout as an example of "technological self-sufficiency" and import substitution.
The team is led by metallurgical engineer Carlos García Betancourt, with over forty years of experience and a proponent of the use of renewable energy sources.
Alongside him work turners, sheet metal workers, and welders who have had to navigate the shortage of materials by resorting to discarded parts: decommissioned fuel tanks and liquefied gas cylinders.
The oven will generate around 70 degrees Celsius to remove the moisture from the rice and will be installed in the dryer being built in the Granma municipality of Bartolomé Masó.
According to Cubadebate, the team "will avoid the consumption of 21 liters of diesel fuel for every ton processed," a measure that gains special significance in a context where authorities have admitted that "we do not have diesel fuel".
The initiative arises amid a deep food crisis. The national rice production reached only 80,000 tons, well below the country's needs, which has forced reliance on external aid such as the recent emergency donation from China of 15,000 tons.
The biomass oven joins a series of handcrafted inventions that Cubans have developed in response to the scarcity of resources.
Among them stands out the electric polaquito, a handcrafted vehicle with a 2,000 watt motor, and a 1980 Polish car modified to run on charcoal, makeshift solutions that reflect the severity of the energy and supply crisis affecting the island.
While these inventions attempt to showcase the creativity of Cubans, they also highlight Cuba's inability to acquire basic machinery necessary for processes as simple as rice drying.
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