Edible Cities Network Living Lab in Havana

The implementation of Edible City Solutions (ECS) in the Living Lab in Havana started in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemics and the intensification of the economic measures of the current US administration against the Caribbean nation. In our Living Lab, different entrepreneurs, supported by the local City Team with INIFAT and the Ministry of Agriculture, seek to cover partially the demand of the local market by putting aquaponics techniques into practice.
The idea of implementing ECS in the Living Lab was aligned with the country's development projection until 2030 through its contribution to the fulfilment of the respective territorial development plan of the Municipality in Havana, which includes the development of aquaculture, the link with science, technology and innovation, through agreements with scientific and educational institutions in Havana, the assurance of production cycles through the construction of small enterprises and the leasing and enabling of markets to ensure the commercialisation of agriproducts.
The Havana Living Lab relies on combining aquaculture and aquaponics in a closed loop cycle where the "waste" water of fish production is used to fertilise the production of vegetables (mostly lettuce, spinach, coriander and tomatoes) for the neighbourhood and for the workers of the initiative. In this scheme, every kg of fish produced sustains 7-10 kgs of vegetables. The used freshwater fish species (Catfish, red and black Tilapia) exhibit great adaptability to the climate conditions of the country. Catfish has a high nutritional value, a high growth rate (~100gr/month) and resistance to diseases. Nevertheless, also red and black Tilapia are produced due to its higher commercial value, which compensates for its lower growth rate (~80gr/month). Thus, within an area of 5000 square metres, this project has been able to sustain yields of 60 tons of fish in 2023 that support the production of 500 tons of vegetables. The monitoring of the Living Lab demonstrated that the continuous provision of nutrients to the aquaponics has shown to be capable of granting not only a more stable yield, but it has also significantly reduced the maturation time of vegetables. In some cases, vegetable maturation times of 30 days have been reduced to 20-26 days.
The Living Lab results provide an example of the potential for social and environmental impact such pilots can have in the community. The once stagnated-water contained in the former abandoned pools that the project is currently using, used to be a source of mosquitoes, which is now kept under control by the fishes themselves. Furthermore, the pilot has turned into a source of work for the inhabitants of the neighbourhood and it has turned into a food supply for schools, hospitals and the workers of other industries. The Havana Living Lab has proven to be an emblematic example of an environmentally friendly way of granting resilience and food sovereignty in medium-to-large communities (i.e., at a municipal scale), and it has also provided a great example of the impact and influence that such a pilot can have on national policy. Indeed, the success of this project has motivated the Cuban government to use it as a model to encourage the development of aquaculture in all the provinces of the country.
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