Fertilizer use increased by 7% in Argentina in 2024

Preliminary studies from FERTILIZAR Civil Association, an entity whose purpose is to spread knowledge about nutrition and soil care for sustainable production, indicate that fertilizer use in 2024 closed at around 4.9 million tons, representing a 7% increase compared to the previous season.

This growth in fertilizer use changed the downward trend that had been recorded in the last two seasons, after 2021 marked the maximum application of technologies with 5.6 million tons, which culminated in the second-best grain season in Argentine productive history.

María Fernanda González Sanjuan, executive manager of the entity, emphasizes that "the most important condition for achieving this increase was the recovery of moisture and the recharge of profiles with usable water." This factor was decisive for the increase in both wheat area and application rates.

Corn, on the other hand, was conditioned by the monitoring and advancement of the "leafhopper," a pest that had affected the previous year's season. Although there was a reduction in the area planted with this cereal - 6.6 million hectares in 2024 vs. 7.9 million hectares in 2023 - the proportion of early corn over late corn was substantially modified, which led to greater technological use. Following this line of analysis, it is worth noting that soybeans continue to be the crop that still uses less technology than recommended by specialists.

Regarding the price of technology, although the Input/Product ratio (kg of grain needed to buy 1 kg of fertilizer) improved compared to 2023, this improvement occurred throughout the year due to a reduction in import taxes, so it had a relative impact.

"At FERTILIZAR AC, we celebrate this change in the trend of nutrient application and how farmers adopt this technology to produce efficiently while overcoming the particularities that each season brings us. We know that we have a way to go to make possible the best agronomy that will allow us to obtain more yields and improve the fertility of our soils," added González Sanjuan.

Looking ahead to the new 2025/26 agricultural season, FERTILIZAR AC commented that, as always, it will be important to be very attentive and deepen diagnostics before each planting, but they emphasized that "after years where the contribution of fertilizers to the system is adjusted, it is expected that we will find soils poorly supplied with nutrients, so we must be accurate with diagnoses and doses. Otherwise, we will compromise the yields of the next season," concluded Gonzalez Sanjuan.

(Editing by Leonardo Gottems, reporter for AgroPages)