Precision farming does nothing to improve commodity prices, transportation infrastructure, or credit availability in their country, but some Argentinean farmers look to precision technology to help them maintain their position as low cost producers of grain. Like producers in North America, they ask what parts of this technology will prove practical and profitable for their conditions. My observation is that because of economic conditions and the way agriculture is organized in Argentina, yield monitoring and other information technologies will be adopted rapidly by larger producers, but that variable rate application will grow slowly.
These observations are based on a 10 day stay in the Argentine pampas in April 1999. I visited farms and met farm managers, crop consultants, custom operators, and agribusiness people in the provinces of Buenos Aires, Santa Fe, and Cordoba. The trip was made possible by the Conservation Production Foundation (FPC) based in Buenos Aires. My visit is part of a long term collaboration in Argentina, especially with the precision farming program at the National Institute for Agricultural Technology (INTA), Manfredi experiment station, Cordoba Province.
Current Status
Combine yield monitors have been installed on 1-2% of all combines in Argentina. This compares to yield monitors on about 4% of combines in North America. As in the US, the acreage harvested with yield monitors is larger than the percentage of combines because they tend to be installed on newer, larger machines. According to Mario Bragachini, Coordinator of the INTA precision agriculture program, about half of all yield monitors are used with GPS. FM sideband differential correction is available throughout most of the pampas from towers at San Carlos, Santa Fe Province, and Bolivar, Buenos Aires Province. A third signal is planned in northern Argentina.
Use of GPS guidance systems for sprayers are spreading rapidly. About 300 guidance systems were in use in Argentina for the 1998-99 crop season according to Bragachini. About 40% of those were on-ground equipment. The guidance systems are popular because they help reduce skips and overlaps, facilitate night spraying, and substantially reduce labor requirements. Few Argentinean chemical applicators use foam markers. Before GPS guidance systems, spraying typically involved a crew of two or three, an equipment operator, and one or two flaggers. With GPS, only the equipment operator is needed and the risk of exposing flaggers to chemicals is eliminated.
Use of variable rate application technology has spread slowly in Argentina. According to Bragachini, 10 VRT fertilizer and chemical applicators were in use for the 98/99 crop season. Argentinean planter manufacturers, such as Agrometal, are adapting their equipment to variable rate. Early applications of variable rate planting are expected to include lowering plant populations for the dry corners of center pivot irrigated fields.
Key Differences:
For the adoption of precision agriculture in Argentina, there are at least four crucial differences from the US situation: higher investment cost, more risk, less management induced soil variability, and the widespread use of custom operators. Currently, interest rates for production loans are 12-15% annually, and longer term credit is not easily available. Because most precision technology must be imported into Argentina, the cost is somewhat higher than the same technology in the US. The Argentine government has no programs to stabilize grain prices or farm incomes. High interest rates, difficulty in obtaining credit, higher technology costs and risk discourage investment in all new technology, including precision agriculture.
Much of the pampas is characterized by large fields that have only recently been converted from pasture rotations to continuous cropping. In most places, management induced variability is less than it would be in the US. There are few former fence rows, old lanes, or feedlots. Fertilizer use is relatively new in Argentina. There has been little opportunity to create soil fertility patterns through the application or misapplication of fertilizer.
Some of those involved in precision agriculture, including Bragachini and Cesar Belloso, FPC, argue that Argentina has more natural soil variability than the US. My observation is that the natural soil variability in Argentina is substantial, even on the flat, apparently homogenous pampas, where characteristics like salinity and small differences in topography can greatly influence yields.
In Argentina, farm management and equipment operation are often separate enterprises. Many farm operations, including planting, are done by custom operators. Many producers own almost no equipment. Harvesting is often done by crews, similar to the custom cutters that operate in the US Great Plains, and paid with a percentage of the harvest, often 8% or 9%.
For yield monitoring, custom harvesting can pose a problem. Combine operators are often employees of the custom harvesting business. They often have only a grade school education and have never used a computer. They are motivated to harvest as much grain as they can, as quickly as possible. They are not necessarily motivated to collect good data.
A few custom harvesters, like Sergio Marinelli, Venado Tuerto, Santa Fe Province, have seen yield mapping as an extra service that they can provide their clients. Even if no added fee is charged for yield mapping, it cements long term relationships with clients. Custom operators also like having an estimate of harvest quantities from the yield monitor which is independent of the farm scales or the grain dealer.
Rapid Adoption
Several factors suggest that yield mapping and other information systems technologies will be adopted more rapidly in Argentina than they have been in the US, at least on larger farms.
Yield maps, as-applied maps, and other precision data are more valuable in Argentina because the manager of the farm often does not observe crop conditions and yield from the tractor or combine seat. In the US, where farmers usually operate their own equipment, yield maps often help to quantify variability that producers already know about. In Argentina, the maps often reveal variability that managers had not observed directly. In addition, yield maps, as-applied maps, and other precision data provide an important quality control on work being done by employees or custom operators.
Use of yield monitor and other spatial data in Argentina will be facilitated because they will have less need to pool data across farms. It is my opinion that US farmers will need to pool precision data to achieve the full benefit of the technology. Most Corn Belt farms are not big enough to provide the range of conditions needed to begin to identify patterns without designed experiments. On the many large farms in Argentina the need to pool data is reduced. On my trip, I spoke with many managers of farms over 10,000 acres (4,000 hectars) and that was only a small sample. Depending on soil variability and management, 10,000 acres may provide enough data to begin to identify patterns without specifically designed trials.
If data pooling is necessary, it may be easier in Argentina than it has been in the US. Argentine agriculture has a long history of data sharing. For example, the Regional Agricultural Experimentation Groups (CREAs) meet regularly to share agronomic and accounting information. In part, this occurs because Argentinean growers have only recently started to compete for rental land. In the past, they usually focused on improving management on the acreage they already controlled. In the US, one of the reasons for reluctance to share data is that producers do not want yields and other information in the hands of those who will be competing with them to rent the farm down the road.
Yield monitors in Argentina are usually used over larger areas than in the US. According to Bragachini, because of the long harvest season and custom harvesting, large combines often cover 8,000 to 11,000 acres per year. By spreading the cost of the yield monitor and GPS over more acres, the per acre costs are lowered.
Lag in VRT
I expect the use of VRT in Argentina to grow slowly because of the high cost of soil sampling, low management induced variability, and current low rates of fertilizer use. Crop consultants and farm managers cited soil laboratory analysis fees ranging from $40-70 per sample. Those costs are prohibitive for grid sampling of the type used in the US. Even for a guided sampling plan with larger management zones, the cost would be quite high.
Currently, many farms in Argentina use no fertilizer at all. Even the well managed, highly capitalized farms that I visited used rates that are low by US standards, on corn 30-60 lbs./a of N, and 20-40 lbs./a P2O5 on soils of 1-3% organic matter, and Bray P tests of 6-15 ppm. This does not provide much opportunity to profit from cut backs or reallocation of fertilizer.
Challenges
Some key challenges for precision agriculture in Argentina include:
Training combine operators to collect high quality data
In response to this problem, INTA Manfredi is planning the first precision farming course for combine operators this year. Bragachini says that he hopes to convey the message that combines are harvesting data as well as grain, and that the data is valuable.
Interpreting data
This is a challenge everywhere precision agriculture is used. In Argentina there may be special challenge in helping farm managers who do not spend hours in the tractor or combine seat to understand the variability of their fields. An additional challenge is adapting on-farm research designs. On-farm research methods developed in the US may not transfer directly. For example, in the US, split planter designs work well for corn because many producers have cornheads that are exactly half the width of their planters. This is not the case in Argentina. On-farm research needs to be developed to fit Argentine equipment and the questions that producers there ask.
Adapting VRT to Argentina conditions
Adapting VRT to Argentine conditions will probably require finding ways to make use of low cost data, instead of heavy reliance on grid soil sampling. This low cost data might include yield maps, topographical maps, aerial photographs, and eventually remote sensing and soil sensors. Developing a local precision farming research base This will probably be the most important challenge for Argentine agriculture. Precision farming technology developed in North America or elsewhere will need to be adapted to Argentine conditions. In the past, Argentine agriculture has relied heavily on borrowing North American technology. For precision agriculture, borrowing may not be entirely successful, because both the agronomics and economics of precision agriculture are site specific. As in North America, a combination of private sector and public sector research will probably be necessary to help precision technology fulfill its potential in Argentina.
About the Author:
J. Lowenberg-DeBoer is a professor at Purdue University in the Department of Agricultural Economics and can be reached at 765-494-4191.
