Production of new varieties of beans, yucca and sweet potato, achieved by the Lenin University Center in the eastern Cuban province of Las Tunas, aims to improve the area's economic development and natural environment. “The use of crops like beans can serve to fix nitrogen in the soil, which, together with other practices, improves soil fertility,” Ania Yong, a crop diversification expert with the National Institute of Agricultural Sciences, told Tierramérica.

More than 63 percent of the soil in Las Tunas — a predominantly farming region — is classified as being “low productivity”.

According to Yong, having a wide range of varieties of each crop makes it more likely that they can find one or more that have acceptable yields.