01/20/09 Farming In Argentina

Farming in Argentina. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. Farmers in Argentina have been hit with a double-edged sword this year. They want to produce a bumper crop - but haven't gotten the rain needed - and the government still has an imposed export tariff that makes it difficult to make money on their farming operation. Francisco Pirovano is an Agricultural Specialist with the Embassy of the United States in Argentina. PIROVANO: It's very difficult. Farmers in Argentina don't get any support from the government. We Argentines complain about subsidies in developed worlds but our government keeps taxing our farmers. So the settlement has to be in cash and self financed. If a farmer in Argentina wants to buy equipment or land - he can not just walk into a bank - it most likely would be done in cash. And Pirovano says once you make a loan - you can't get out of it. PIROVANO: Interest rates are very high and maybe this year when you plan to take the loan you say, okay I can take it because I can pay in these and that way but when you miss one harvest, that's it. That harvest you missed makes you have to refinance your load to maybe higher rates and you don't get out of the bank. There is one positive side to farming in Argentina - and Pirovano says that is the popularity of no-till farming. PIROVANO: No-till is the result of erosion problems particularly in this area in the northern providence of Buena's Aires. We have gently hills and soils poor in organic matter so they had the problem during the remaining years, they have a water erosion problem and they tried to solve the problem through the 90's with vertical tilling and it didn't work very well. So they introduced this no-till technology to solve the erosion problem and at the same time our soybeans went in to the market so they applied both technologies, the Roundup ready soybeans with the no-till  it was perfect. The perfect combination. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.