Argentina: use of agrochemicals on grapes increased with El Niño

Although not a widespread situation, experts in the province of Mendoza, Argentina, have alerted about outbreaks of Peronospora, mostly on grapes, the major crop in that province. The focus is concentrated in the Eastern and Northern parts of the province. These alerts come right after the government decided to devalue the country's currency, which results in more costs of the inputs to combat the Peronospora.

"We do not have quantified data about possible done damages, but the problem is that Peronospora is present in all of the oasis of the province,” assumed the agronomist with technical responsibility at the Association of Argentine Wine Cooperatives, Daniel Massi.

The outbreak is considered a consequence of El Niño and the characteristic of its attacks is to affect the green parts of the plants, according to studies of Argentina's National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA). This is called the cluster Peronospora. The vine Peronospora intervene on fungus and manifests itself on cluster during all of its cycle.

"We have seen attacks on leaves as well as on cluster, though not widespread. The Eastern and Northern regions are most affected by this problem. In the south we have seen something in the zone of Real del Padre and General Alvea. We are in all of the regions, but we cannot talk about significant damages,” added Massi.

Local newspaper Los Andes reported that a lot of dealerships did not price the products as “waiting for a stabilization of the dollar value” in the last week of December. According to data from an Observatory, Mendoza has in total 159,000 hectares of Peronospora vine.