Competitive advantage is intelligence

We dedicate this edition of Clarín Rural to the 33rd AAPRESID Congress, which concluded yesterday at the Palermo venue. The motto, "Open Source," accurately reflects the spirit that surrounded this unmissable meeting of the agricultural think tank. A collective endeavor that embodied the extraordinary epic of the Second Pampas Revolution and that resonates around the world .

And there's no exaggeration in this. The IICA (Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture), based in Costa Rica, encouraged the participation of ministers of agriculture from Caribbean countries, who come to benefit from the "Pamphumes" developments . But at the same time, they emphasized their interaction . Trinidad and Tobago, for example, is a major supplier of nitrogen fertilizers , essential for modern agriculture. But they need to develop their own agriculture and know that there is a generous supply of knowledge here.

Everything is connected to everything. New trends have emerged with force, such as the interaction of new biofuels with the seed, machinery, and processing industries . Bunge, with its Chacra Servicios students, has been promoting Camelina . It's a Brassica (a relative of rapeseed) that, thanks to its special oil content, is used to produce "SAF," the biofuel used in aircraft navigation.

LDC is also involved in this. And the Australian company Nufarm is making a strong push with Carinata , another Brassica crop making inroads in the region with its hybrid seeds. In a panel, Andrés Iolster (with many years of experience and consulting in the protein oils and flours market) said that this is an inexorable trend . One condition that the Europeans set for implementing the SAF is that there be no competition with food crops. And given the cycle of this crop, it doesn't compete with wheat or other winter cereals, since it is sown and harvested as if it were a service crop, freeing up the field for early sowing of summer crops . Iolster maintains that the best conditions for advancing this crop are in the southern cone of South America (Argentina and Uruguay).

The first steps are just being taken, and there's much to fine-tune in the technology for these Brassicas. But progress is already being seen in all aspects of cultivation and harvesting. In this case, G-FAS exhibited a stripper header used to harvest camelina in Pergamino , surprising visitors with the ease with which it threshes the camelina without cutting the stubble, which greatly facilitates second-season sowing as the straw remains standing . "Non-till seeding begins with the harvest," the company maintains, showing a video comparing the stubble left by a cutting platform (which requires chopping and even spreading of what emerges from the tail) and the stripper, where nothing needs to be distributed because the straw remains standing. These are the answers to the challenges of intensification in no-till seeding .

On this trail, the presence of irrigation was very strong . Valley with a well-visited stand and the permanent presence of its mentor, Martín Pasman , who not only represents the brand but is also one of the leading center pivot irrigators in Argentina. But there were also companies exhibiting solar panel systems as a source of energy to address the biggest challenge in irrigation, which is the cost of pumping. A panel on wheat irrigation in northern Patagonia was fully booked, with case presentations and a speech by Jorge Fraschina , a wheat breeder at INTA Marcos Juárez now dedicated to advising on irrigation in that region and in northern Córdoba. The same panel showcased the results of new technologies, such as the application of micronutrients and biological products . Surprising responses where it seemed there wasn't much left to do.

The big outcome of Congress is that it shatters the absurd idea (which has been floating around these days) that agriculture has "natural comparative advantages." Guys, competitive advantage is intelligence. Know that.