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November 06, 2023
Sustainability and marginal areas: the double challenge of growing and improving productive environments
Andrés Costamagna, Director of the Argentine Rural Society (SRA), Martín Sackmann Varela, Manager of Innovation and Technical Development of Los Grobo and Rafael Cueto, agricultural producer and member of CREA, discussed the challenges, opportunities and tools necessary for agriculture grows with sustainability as a framework.

Adapt to changes thinking about new generations, while trying to learn and sustain the application of new technologies, in a transition that increasingly demands more agility, flexibility and above all: results. This is the context faced by Argentine agricultural producers, who, ahead, see the possibility of reaching an estimated production of 200 million tons.

“We have to permanently adapt to the new, thinking about future generations and not only about the gross margin of each crop,” said Andrés Costamagna, Director of the Argentine Rural Society, who confirmed that the SRA is working on the creation of a “seal ” local that allows guaranteeing and measuring the sustainability of Argentine producers.

Along these lines, Rafael Cueto, agricultural producer and member of CREA, clarified that the important thing is that producers do not face the changes alone. “It is important not to walk the path of sustainability and innovation alone, because many times the producer is alone in the field. Our fields are open to show everything we do,” he stated.

In parallel, Martín Sackmann Varela, Innovation and Technical Development Manager of Los Grobo, said that 95% of its approximately 60 partners do direct sowing and are “dedicated to sustainability.”

“They are all trying to use more and more precision agriculture and are starting to use digital platforms,” he stated and clarified that what the Argentine producer is missing is “being more connected to external markets.” “It is up to us to try to accompany the producer and bring them the alternatives that exist, the technologies are there. There are a lot of applications and solutions that we have to apply intelligently,” he stressed.

For his part, Costamagna also spoke of the importance of promoting communication within the sector and together with Sackmann Varela agreed that in Argentina there are no “marginal areas”, but rather, potential or developing areas, in which the conditions are different.

"We have to tell what we do, we have to move forward in having real monitoring mechanisms. Transparency is going to be the axis of the coming years so that the data becomes organized information that can be consulted," analyzed Costamagna.

In the paper they agreed that the focus of the sustainability agenda will be, in part, on water management. “We, in Argentine agriculture, harvest water. All the 700 to a thousand millimeters that rain in the Pampas region are transformed into the art of the producer who makes the roots take it, transform it into biomass and then into grain," said Sackmann Varela and clarified that Argentine agriculture has the challenge of take advantage of water: “In the Pampas area we are using half of the rainwater, there we should grow enormously.”

Towards closing, Costamagna highlighted that it is important for producers to adapt in order to comply with the quantity, but also with the quality of what is made. “Direct sowing made us more efficient in water consumption and positional agriculture helps us be more efficient on a smaller area,” Cueto highlighted, for his part, and concluded: “Today we have the capacity and technology to do it How next? with trial, error and the company of peers.” → forbesargentina.com

Automatic translation from spanish.

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