Argentina: Return of corn requires investment in chemical control

Aníbal Cerrudo, expert of the National Institute of Agricultural Technology of Argentina, told the Congress of the Association of No-Tillage Farmers of Argentina (Aapresid) in Rosario that the country needed further investment in chemical control.

"Now that the government is out of the way, the ball is in the court of the producer, and he needs to invest in chemical control,” he said.

Cerrudo pointed out that such an investment was now viable with the removal of export taxes and the end of corn trade limits. “Farmers are not currently doing this, but changes that can guarantee profitability will make the difference. We cannot forget that the coming crop will face La Niña,” he added.

Federico Massoni, an agronomist with the same institution, identified the challenges that the new corn crop (2016/2017) will face. In his opinion, several producers have recently been negligent in their management practices with Bt varieties.

"We have to take very seriously the refuge areas. In Brazil, they played with it, and the result was terrible. With the massive return of corn, we will see frequent outbreaks of the Fall Armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda) if we play with it and do not correctly apply pest control to the refuge areas, as happened recently,” Massoni warned.