Ruiz Díaz

At present, the cultivation of pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata Duch. ) is of great economic importance and constitutes an alternative to mitigate the impact of climate change, although its production has been increasing, there are still not enough commercial varieties of high productive potential, easy adaptability and good culinary quality, so it is necessary to develop plant genetic resources to achieve desired characteristics and it is a working objective of our breeding programme to increase their production, taking into account the economic indicators, hence the practical application of these results contributes to increasing the availability of food and therefore to the diversification of supply in the market for the population. Cuba has obtained some new varieties, but erosion seems to have extinguished others. This result represents an important scientific contribution to the recommendation of new pumpkin cultivars, important advances are presented in the genetic improvement programme carried out at INIVIT.