Soil Mining in Cropping Systems in Argentina

Juan Pablo Monzon, Research Assistant Professor Agronomy & Horticulture University of Nebraska-Lincoln Author

12/07/2021 Added

8 Plays

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The growing global demand for food, a competitive agricultural sector, and an intermediate yield gap level put Argentina in an excellent position to intensify crop production for the next 10 years. Higher yields have a higher nutrient requirement, and it is unclear whether current nutrient use in Argentina is enough to close the yield gap in a sustainable way.

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[00:00:00.760]The following presentation
[00:00:02.210]is part of the Agronomy and Horticulture Seminar Series
[00:00:05.810]at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
[00:00:08.800]Good afternoon all, and it is my great pleasure
[00:00:11.170]to introduce Dr. Juan Pablo Monzon.
[00:00:15.469]Pablo is currently a research assistant professor at UNL.
[00:00:21.630]He has a PhD degree
[00:00:24.130]from the University of Mar del Plata in Argentina.
[00:00:28.380]Before that he got his BS on Agronomic Engineering
[00:00:33.400]from the University of Mar del Plata as well.
[00:00:37.930]He is now a research assistant professor at UNL as I said,
[00:00:42.237]but also he holds two positions in Argentina.
[00:00:45.450]One as an associate research scientist
[00:00:48.820]at the National Scientific and Technical Research
[00:00:51.280]Council of Argentina.
[00:00:53.170]Another one as an associate professor
[00:00:55.910]at the university of Mar del Plata.
[00:00:58.710]And in these positions,
[00:01:01.120]he has a dual research and teaching role,
[00:01:04.740]and Pablo also works as a private crop consultant.
[00:01:09.660]So in a way he has a triple appointment,
[00:01:11.590]including teaching, extension, and research appointments.
[00:01:15.900]And the areas of expertise of Juan Pablo
[00:01:18.050]are on sustainable cropping systems,
[00:01:20.411]crop ecophysiology, crop modelling, and intercropping,
[00:01:24.321]and he is a very prolific scientist.
[00:01:28.420]He have been publishing more than 20 papers
[00:01:30.720]in peer review, international journals,
[00:01:33.130]including a recent one in nature of sustainability.
[00:01:35.880]Plus another two book chapters, and more recently,
[00:01:40.470]and as a part of his work here at university of Nebraska,
[00:01:44.360]Pablo has been focusing on projects
[00:01:46.590]related with oil palm intensification in Indonesia,
[00:01:49.630]as well as an another project
[00:01:51.810]on soil nutrient mining,
[00:01:54.800]in South American cropping systems.
[00:01:57.570]And finally, I want to warn you
[00:01:59.510]that Pablo is also a farmer.
[00:02:01.900]Every year he grows sunflower, soybeans, maize and wheat
[00:02:07.550]in more than 2000 acres back in Argentina.
[00:02:11.310]So be aware of that when you ask a question to Pablo
[00:02:14.030]or when you are proposing him to do things differently,
[00:02:16.940]because he's gonna go back home,
[00:02:19.130]try whatever you're proposing
[00:02:20.540]and then let you know if you were right or wrong.
[00:02:22.190]So keep that in mind when asking things to Pablo.
[00:02:25.560]Having said that,
[00:02:26.393]again, Pablo is a pleasure to have you today with us,
[00:02:28.960]and I will let you now to show the presentation
[00:02:31.460]and it start your directory to them.
[00:02:34.617]Thank you very much.
[00:02:37.170]Thank you for this presentation
[00:02:38.670]and welcome everybody and just thank you all,
[00:02:42.320]just to let me share part of my work
[00:02:45.720]that I've been doing here
[00:02:47.070]during these last two years here at UNL.
[00:02:49.900]Okay so, I will be talking today
[00:02:51.940]about soil mining in cropping systems in Argentina.
[00:02:56.250]So, this is part of the work that we have been doing
[00:03:00.110]here in Nebraska,
[00:03:01.785]in collaboration with ReTAA.
[00:03:03.370]ReTAA is the research division
[00:03:06.780]of the cereal board of trade of bona fides
[00:03:13.077]and also with ifa,
[00:03:14.610]that is the international fertilizer association.
[00:03:19.010]So let me first start with some of global trends.
[00:03:24.240]So we are assuming that there will be an increase
[00:03:26.010]in the amount for food
[00:03:27.540]by around 50% by year 2050.
[00:03:31.060]This will be mainly due to an increase in the population,
[00:03:34.890]and also due to changes in the diet.
[00:03:39.400]The annual yield gains are not sufficient,
[00:03:43.620]just to meet the future demand
[00:03:45.370]on the currently cultivated land.
[00:03:49.240]And as a result, there is a massive expansion
[00:03:51.310]of the cultivating area during the last decade,
[00:03:54.110]of around 13 million hectares per year.
[00:03:58.490]And in many cases,
[00:04:00.060]this is at the expense of natural ecosystems
[00:04:04.070]like tropical forest, for example, in Brazil
[00:04:07.546]or in places like Indonesia for example.
[00:04:12.150]So, there is also a post-pandemic scenario,
[00:04:14.770]where we have high grain prices,
[00:04:17.990]and also an aspiration of the countries
[00:04:20.150]for just, for rapid economic recovery after the pandemic.
[00:04:25.270]So all these things together,
[00:04:27.860]are putting a lot of pressure
[00:04:28.890]just to increase the area,
[00:04:32.230]and to increase the production of our food.
[00:04:36.300]So we can say that, satisfying that future demand
[00:04:41.408]for food, without massive expansion
[00:04:44.410]of the cultivated area,
[00:04:46.440]that would require the sustainable intensification
[00:04:49.217]of the crop production systems,
[00:04:52.210]such in a way that each hectare that we actually have,
[00:04:55.980]produces close to its potential
[00:04:59.050]minimizing the environmental impacts
[00:05:01.280]and preserving the resources like soil and water.
[00:05:05.410]So this is where the concept of yield potential
[00:05:09.860]and yield gap comes into action.
[00:05:12.650]So you can see here,
[00:05:15.690]definition for the yield potential.
[00:05:17.830]Yield potential is determined by the radiation,
[00:05:20.210]the temperature, the CO2 concentration,
[00:05:23.330]the cultivar, and the precipitation.
[00:05:26.000]Soil is in the case that we are talking
[00:05:27.900]about potentially dry land conditions,
[00:05:31.590]and then we have what we call the actual yield.
[00:05:34.222]That is the yield that the farmers are obtaining,
[00:05:37.220]which is limited by poor nutrition,
[00:05:39.927]poor management of pest, diseases, biotic stresses
[00:05:44.779]and so on.
[00:05:47.100]And the differences between these two levels
[00:05:49.410]is what we refer as the yield.
[00:05:53.120]Reaching around 70 to 80% of that yield gap,
[00:05:57.430]is a reasonable goal for a producer with access to market,
[00:06:00.493]technology and information,
[00:06:02.220]Like here is a case of Argentina.
[00:06:04.780]I will show these in the next slides,
[00:06:08.340]and above the threshold performance increases
[00:06:10.427]are more difficult and even not feasible
[00:06:13.620]from an economic or even a logistic
[00:06:16.280]or environmental perspective.
[00:06:18.741]So we have been working in the Global Yield Gap Atlas.
[00:06:22.390]This is an effort initiated by University of Nebraska,
[00:06:26.090]and also by the team at Wageningen in Netherlands,
[00:06:32.110]in collaboration with local experts.
[00:06:37.580]In this analysis we will follow a specific protocol
[00:06:42.220]based on knowledge of crop ecophysiology
[00:06:46.747]and the production systems in each of these places.
[00:06:51.040]I was in charge of, with the team from Argentina,
[00:06:55.210]I lead the team in Argentina,
[00:06:56.430]in which we estimate the yield gap for Argentina.
[00:07:01.750]But let me before going to the yield gaps for Argentina,
[00:07:05.180]let me use some background about the main crops
[00:07:08.410]that we have in Argentina.
[00:07:11.220]So in Argentina right now,
[00:07:12.650]three crops account for more than 90%
[00:07:15.580]of the total cropland.
[00:07:17.850]And this number is even higher,
[00:07:20.010]if we are thinking about the production.
[00:07:22.700]Those three crops are soybean, maize and wheat,
[00:07:28.520]they are cultivated,
[00:07:29.560]soybean is cultivated around 18 million hectares,
[00:07:32.989]6 million hectares of maize,
[00:07:34.340]and around 5 million acres of wheat.
[00:07:37.420]The yields that we have on average
[00:07:39.390]are around three tons for soybeans,
[00:07:41.500]seven tons maize, and around three tons for wheat.
[00:07:45.900]And something that is very important for this presentation,
[00:07:49.940]which I'm talking about soil nutrient mining,
[00:07:52.890]is that most of all the grain that we are producing
[00:07:56.190]is exported, mainly to countries in Asia,
[00:07:59.900]and to other parts of the world.
[00:08:00.980]But you know the crops,
[00:08:03.940]the percentage of the production,
[00:08:05.938]as export is very high and it's almost 100%
[00:08:09.900]for the case of soybean.
[00:08:13.970]If we look into the area,
[00:08:16.620]how the harvest area had been increasing across the year,
[00:08:20.510]we can see that there was like in the 90s,
[00:08:23.320]there was like a sharp increase
[00:08:24.964]in the harvested area in Argentina.
[00:08:27.570]This was mainly at the expense of pastures
[00:08:32.050]that were converted to crops.
[00:08:36.260]Now we're experiencing some,
[00:08:37.840]also some increase in the area,
[00:08:39.160]but it's almost nil,
[00:08:41.630]and another important feature of the yield in Argentina.
[00:08:46.930]So, sorry here you have the area that you can see
[00:08:52.170]with red dots and in green you can see the crop intensity.
[00:08:58.890]We have around a crop intensity of 1.15.
[00:09:02.680]That means that we have around 1.15 crops per year.
[00:09:06.290]And this is mainly related
[00:09:07.830]with the fact that we have soybean as the only crop,
[00:09:12.707]that is planted after the harvest of wheat or more.
[00:09:18.510]If we look into the yields,
[00:09:20.390]you can see oil.
[00:09:21.880]Here you can see the yields for sunflower and soybean,
[00:09:24.910]as the function of the sowing here.
[00:09:27.090]And in the y-axis in the right side,
[00:09:29.890]you can see the maize yield,
[00:09:32.020]all the years are increasing.
[00:09:34.540]Argentina has one of the highest yield gain increases
[00:09:38.910]in the world.
[00:09:40.397]And also the winter,
[00:09:42.700]the yield of the winter crops like wheat and barley,
[00:09:45.360]they are always increasing at very high rates.
[00:09:49.720]So another important feature of Agriculture in Argentina
[00:09:54.710]is that around 60% of the acres is rented to their owners.
[00:10:01.400]So that means that most of the year
[00:10:03.500]is not produced by the owners of the land.
[00:10:06.616]That is something I think quite similar
[00:10:07.990]to whats happening here in Nebraska.
[00:10:12.890]Around 90% or even a higher amount of the agricultural land
[00:10:18.590]is under no-till system,
[00:10:20.680]and it has been like this
[00:10:23.240]for almost the last,
[00:10:25.000]let's say the last 15 years at least.
[00:10:28.810]Well, soybean is one of the main crops
[00:10:32.150]around half of the area is occupied by this crop.
[00:10:37.220]Another important feature is that around 65% of the area
[00:10:41.430]of winter crops are double cropped with soybeans.
[00:10:47.260]Something has been recently changing
[00:10:52.160]is the amount of cover crops that we have.
[00:10:55.760]Right now we have around 2%
[00:10:56.820]of all the area with cover crops,
[00:11:00.050]which might not seem like a big number,
[00:11:02.800]but it's a big number in terms of hectares.
[00:11:06.430]And that's increasing a lot from year to year.
[00:11:11.720]So when we look into the yield gaps,
[00:11:14.100]into the research that were done by, this was presented
[00:11:19.260]by Fernando Aramburu Merlos in one paper
[00:11:21.947]in yield gap research like this was in 2015.
[00:11:27.360]So here you can see for the different regions in Argentina,
[00:11:32.140]the yield gaps for soybean, wheat ,and maize,
[00:11:37.770]for soybean we have a yield gap on average
[00:11:41.050]across the country of around 30%,
[00:11:43.818]and it's around 40% for the case of maize and wheat.
[00:11:48.120]So we can increase the yield,
[00:11:50.669]what we are talking about before, that we can reach
[00:11:53.840]around 80% of the yield potential.
[00:11:55.680]So that means that we can increase yields
[00:11:57.420]by 10 points percent by around 20.1%
[00:12:02.789]for the case of wheat and maize,
[00:12:04.740]and 10% for the case of soybean.
[00:12:09.180]So if we use the maize as an example
[00:12:14.100]for the yield gaps across the different countries,
[00:12:16.930]and how is South American comparison
[00:12:20.960]to the yield gaps for other countries?
[00:12:22.750]So you can see here in different colors,
[00:12:26.168]the yield gaps in green colors,
[00:12:30.010]we have very small yield gaps in black colors
[00:12:32.770]the yield gaps are actual or maximum.
[00:12:36.640]So there are some areas in the world
[00:12:37.980]with very small yield gaps.
[00:12:40.410]We have areas with intermediate yield gaps,
[00:12:42.530]like you see the case of South America,
[00:12:45.370]and areas in which we have a large gaps.
[00:12:48.257]For the case of Argentina as I told you before,
[00:12:50.390]we have intermediate gaps,
[00:12:53.020]we also have a very good access
[00:12:54.640]to market and technology and information.
[00:12:57.830]And that means that we have,
[00:13:01.110]like a very big,
[00:13:02.760]a every reasonable opportunity
[00:13:05.400]to close the yield gap in Argentina.
[00:13:11.730]So one of the questions,
[00:13:13.180]it will be what is behind that yield gap?
[00:13:17.530]One of the main, one of the first things
[00:13:20.010]that one may think about how to close the yield gap,
[00:13:25.100]is, well we all know that to get high yields in any crop,
[00:13:30.300]we will have a high or a large nutrient requirement.
[00:13:34.590]So here we have an example for maize.
[00:13:37.700]The scale having the grain yield for maize,
[00:13:40.607]and the nitrogen uptake.
[00:13:43.270]So this is an example for maize,
[00:13:45.320]and using nitrogen as an example of the nutrients.
[00:13:50.970]And you can see that when you got,
[00:13:53.524]to obtain very high yields,
[00:13:54.390]you also need to increase the amount
[00:13:57.650]of that nutrient uptake.
[00:13:59.443]And the soils typically that they do not provide
[00:14:02.270]all the nutrients that the crop needs.
[00:14:03.770]So farmers, what they do to provide the extra amount
[00:14:07.800]of nutrients needed by the crops
[00:14:09.522]to achieve their potential
[00:14:11.900]is just they apply synthetic fertilizer,
[00:14:14.880]or they apply other kinds of, let's say organic fertilizer,
[00:14:20.880]like for example manure.
[00:14:24.250]So this is where the nutrient balance comes into action.
[00:14:28.950]So we also have here nitrogen, as an example,
[00:14:32.560]when we talk about the balance,
[00:14:35.490]we use the applied amount of nitrogen
[00:14:39.100]minus the nitrogen that is removed with the grains,
[00:14:42.350]and we can have two situations,
[00:14:44.490]deficit or excess.
[00:14:47.160]So when we have a deficit,
[00:14:48.660]is because the nitrogen that is harvested
[00:14:51.820]or removed in the grains,
[00:14:53.200]is more than the nitrogen that we're applying
[00:14:55.440]or when we have an excess
[00:14:56.600]is because the amount of fertilizer
[00:14:59.770]for nitrogen that we are applying
[00:15:01.910]is higher than the amount removed by the grains.
[00:15:08.200]In this example, we are using nitrogen,
[00:15:10.970]but this example applies to other nutrients.
[00:15:16.990]If we take a look into the most recent research
[00:15:21.090]for nutrient mining across the world,
[00:15:25.370]there are some examples,
[00:15:26.606]like the one here I am showing you on the right side,
[00:15:30.470]this is a map for phosphorus deficit
[00:15:33.490]and phosphorus surpluses,
[00:15:36.300]across different parts of the world.
[00:15:38.550]As you can see, they indicate Argentina
[00:15:44.030]as a place where there is a clear phosphorus mining,
[00:15:47.810]this is another study in which they are measuring
[00:15:53.490]the maximum protein yield of different countries.
[00:15:56.520]And they're also indicating Argentina
[00:15:58.640]and other parts of the world,
[00:16:00.330]like parts where you have some nutrient mining.
[00:16:03.290]These one has been at the country level
[00:16:06.590]with very little data,
[00:16:07.730]but they are indicating some nutrient mining,
[00:16:12.340]especially for case of Argentina.
[00:16:15.960]So this is where our question,
[00:16:21.280]we have a question here,
[00:16:22.210]is whether we want to go from yield gaps to nutrient gaps,
[00:16:25.710]and for the case of Argentina,
[00:16:27.790]if it is possible for Argentina to close
[00:16:29.880]the exploitable yield gap in a sustainable way
[00:16:33.060]with the current use of fertilizers
[00:16:35.450]that we are doing.
[00:16:40.810]So you can see here the map on the left side,
[00:16:47.400]the map shows in this case the crop intensity,
[00:16:50.760]in different colors for the maize crop.
[00:16:54.070]And you can see in red dots,
[00:16:57.310]each of these red dots is a collaborator
[00:17:00.440]that provided us with data for yield,
[00:17:03.950]and for nutrient use for each of the three crops
[00:17:08.900]that I mentioned before with maize and soybean
[00:17:13.990]across all the cropping systems in Argentina.
[00:17:17.000]So we combine that information that was provided by ReTAA,
[00:17:21.788]ReTAA as I told you before,
[00:17:23.020]is like the research division
[00:17:25.847]of the bona fides cereal board of trade.
[00:17:32.010]They are collecting this data for every crop every year.
[00:17:39.230]So they have a very detailed database
[00:17:41.370]for all the crops across Argentina.
[00:17:42.920]And we combine that information with a methodology
[00:17:47.710]that we used before,
[00:17:48.960]to estimate the yield gaps
[00:17:50.290]in which we use different climate zones across Argentina.
[00:17:56.024]Here, you can see an example for the case of wheat.
[00:17:59.310]This is for the cropping season 2016/2017.
[00:18:04.390]And here you can see that nitrogen rate
[00:18:08.311]in kilograms per hectare,
[00:18:10.020]the phosphorus rate, the sulfur rate,
[00:18:12.840]and the actual yield
[00:18:17.391]for each of these collaborators across Argentina.
[00:18:19.815]So this information is the one that we used
[00:18:22.880]just to estimate the rate across the country.
[00:18:25.740]And then by using the actual yield
[00:18:30.680]nutrient extractions per kilogram suffering
[00:18:33.560]is how we estimate the nutrient balance for each crop.
[00:18:41.560]We are only gonna see here
[00:18:43.560]and nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur,
[00:18:47.160]because potassium is a nutrient
[00:18:50.880]that all the soil in Argentina,
[00:18:52.590]they still have very high potassium levels.
[00:18:55.560]So we are not expecting,
[00:18:57.430]or we are not seeing so far
[00:19:00.050]any widespread potassium deficiencies across Argentina.
[00:19:05.600]So that's why we are only focusing here
[00:19:08.680]on nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur.
[00:19:14.250]So, based on the data set I showed you before,
[00:19:19.970]for three cropping systems
[00:19:22.620]that go from year, 2016 to 2018,
[00:19:28.020]2016, sorry, three cropping systems
[00:19:30.800]that goes across these years.
[00:19:33.600]We estimate the nutrient rates.
[00:19:38.720]As you can see here,
[00:19:39.787]the nitrogen rate for Argentina
[00:19:42.070]for the case of maize is 59 kilograms per hectare per year,
[00:19:47.880]around 12 kilograms per hectare per year for phosphorus
[00:19:50.567]and around two kilograms per hectare per year for sulfur.
[00:19:54.892]And there are also some differences here.
[00:19:56.740]So this is also in kilograms per hectare.
[00:20:01.067]But there are also differences across the different regions,
[00:20:03.890]even climatic soils of Argentina,
[00:20:06.850]for the main cropping regions of Argentina,
[00:20:09.630]where we have the highest values for all the nutrients.
[00:20:12.950]And when we move just forward the divisions
[00:20:17.580]where we have the lowest nutrient rates
[00:20:24.560]for the different crops.
[00:20:28.140]Something that is important to mention
[00:20:29.830]is that also in this specific part of Argentina,
[00:20:33.760]we also have very high phosphorous content
[00:20:37.610]in the soil so far.
[00:20:38.810]So we still have enough phosphorus
[00:20:41.290]just to keep mining this area,
[00:20:43.330]but this is a minor area in comparison
[00:20:47.000]to the most productive areas of the country.
[00:20:51.490]When we take a look into the case of wheat,
[00:20:53.440]we have something quite similar.
[00:20:55.520]So 55 kilograms of nitrogen,
[00:20:58.743]11 kilograms of phosphorus,
[00:20:59.920]and 1 kilogram of sulfur,
[00:21:01.820]with some differences across the different regions.
[00:21:07.350]For the case of soybean,
[00:21:09.300]and in the case of soybean,
[00:21:10.810]we are integrating here the values
[00:21:12.650]for soybean sown as a single crop,
[00:21:15.460]and also as a double crop.
[00:21:17.280]But for the case of phosphorus,
[00:21:18.902]we have a phosphorus rate of, on average
[00:21:22.410]5 kilograms per hectare per year,
[00:21:26.365]and around 2.3 kilos of sulfur per hectare.
[00:21:30.930]So this is the average across the country,
[00:21:33.340]there is also here some differences
[00:21:36.360]for the different regions.
[00:21:37.550]We are only showing here phosphorus and sulfur,
[00:21:40.500]and we are assuming that based on the most recent papers,
[00:21:45.080]that is whether we have,
[00:21:47.350]that the nitrogen balance can be assumed
[00:21:50.980]to be zero for this crop.
[00:21:55.820]Well, I showed you before the nutrient rates
[00:21:58.640]across the country across different regions.
[00:22:00.860]I am showing here the average yield
[00:22:03.014]for these same regions.
[00:22:05.140]So we have an average yield of 7.8 tons for maize
[00:22:09.740]for those cropping seasons
[00:22:11.990]in which we are working,
[00:22:14.931]3.2 tons for wheat and three tons for soybean
[00:22:18.330]with some, of course some differences,
[00:22:20.900]that are related with the soil quality
[00:22:23.530]and also with the yield gaps across the regions.
[00:22:29.030]So when we use the average nutrient rate,
[00:22:34.640]and we discount some grain nutrient removal,
[00:22:37.670]based on some nutrient extraction rate,
[00:22:42.383]occurring from IPNI,
[00:22:45.360]so here you have different nutrient extraction rate
[00:22:48.870]for different nutrients and crops.
[00:22:51.720]So we arrive to these kind of maps.
[00:22:54.240]So for the case of maize,
[00:22:56.150]we have a nitrogen balance
[00:22:58.020]of around minus 35 kilograms per hectare per year
[00:23:00.680]across the whole country.
[00:23:01.890]With some areas that even though they have very low yields
[00:23:06.040]in comparison to the most important areas,
[00:23:09.750]they also have very negative nitrogen balance
[00:23:14.140]because of the very low amount of nitrogen that they apply.
[00:23:18.180]We have phosphorus balance
[00:23:19.496]of around minus nine kilograms for phosphorus,
[00:23:23.597]and minus nine kilograms also for sulfur.
[00:23:31.010]For the case of wheat,
[00:23:33.360]the nitrogen balance is minus seven kilograms,
[00:23:37.110]for phosphorus we have a zero phosphorus balance.
[00:23:42.980]And for the case of sulfur,
[00:23:45.190]we have a minus five phosphorus balance.
[00:23:49.850]For the case of soybean we have across the country
[00:23:52.420]minus 11 for phosphorus per hectare,
[00:23:55.050]and minus seven kilogram per hectare for the case of sulfur.
[00:24:01.040]So as you can see as I've been showing here,
[00:24:03.850]so for all the nutrients,
[00:24:06.560]we have very negative nutrient balances
[00:24:10.230]for all the three main crops.
[00:24:12.380]So here I show you the crops
[00:24:16.010]but of course, if we try to combine them,
[00:24:19.841]and if we take into account the area that each crop has,
[00:24:24.570]the results will be just the same
[00:24:25.950]because just combining all negative values will give you,
[00:24:30.180]will you be a very similar result.
[00:24:32.420]So how does this translate
[00:24:34.360]into some of the nutrient balance
[00:24:39.150]that we are observing right now in our soybeans?
[00:24:42.550]So this is a work done by Sainz Rozas and part of his team,
[00:24:50.990]working for institute of Argentina.
[00:24:57.267]And so this map is for phosphorus.
[00:24:59.920]So we are here,
[00:25:02.320]I am here showing you phosphorus Bray.
[00:25:06.370]And this map here is for year 2011.
[00:25:10.680]And this is for 2018.
[00:25:13.000]What they did here was they marked
[00:25:19.100]different farms across all this region.
[00:25:21.840]And they went back seven years before.
[00:25:25.150]Well you can see the research,
[00:25:26.070]you can see how all the phosphorus values
[00:25:29.540]have been decreasing across the most important
[00:25:33.230]and most productive areas of Argentina.
[00:25:35.900]Which is a clear indication of nutrient mining.
[00:25:38.560]And this is here an example for phosphorous,
[00:25:40.830]but they also have the maps for all the other nutrients
[00:25:44.090]which are showing a very similar data.
[00:25:49.560]So, if we want to go from, let's say from nutrient gaps
[00:25:53.520]from sorry, yield gaps to nutrient gaps,
[00:25:56.500]or we want to estimate, what is it,
[00:25:59.990]what is the current nutrient input,
[00:26:00.920]and what is the extra nutrient input,
[00:26:03.340]the requirement that we need to close the yield gap.
[00:26:06.860]So first the current nutrient rates
[00:26:08.900]are not sufficient as I showed you before,
[00:26:11.160]to close a yield gap,
[00:26:13.360]because they are even negative,
[00:26:14.930]with the values that we have right now.
[00:26:17.490]I know the nutrient balance
[00:26:21.840]some soil mining in many cases.
[00:26:25.410]So we wanna close the yield gap,
[00:26:27.936]we will need to increase substantially,
[00:26:31.510]the amount of fertilizer that we are using in Argentina.
[00:26:35.640]So in this table you can see for each of the crops,
[00:26:38.320]we have maize, wheat and soybean.
[00:26:41.390]You can see the average yield, the attainable yield.
[00:26:45.720]This was estimated based on world gap
[00:26:49.300]I showed before of the yield gap for Argentina.
[00:26:52.133]This is the current region rates that we are applying,
[00:26:55.870]And this is the extra amount of nutrients
[00:26:57.783]that we need to apply to close that yield gap.
[00:27:05.900]And also we are taking into account,
[00:27:08.530]the extra amount of nitrogen yield,
[00:27:11.550]and to take into account any possible losses
[00:27:15.267]of this nutrient
[00:27:16.380]or for phosphorus and sulfur.
[00:27:18.250]We are assuming just a replacement criteria.
[00:27:23.690]As you can see let's say,
[00:27:24.830]if we take a look for example,
[00:27:26.440]for the case of maize,
[00:27:28.650]we need almost to go from 60
[00:27:35.662]to more than double the amount of nitrogen
[00:27:37.618]that we are applying.
[00:27:38.451]So we need to apply 59
[00:27:40.771]plus another 119 kilograms of nitrogen
[00:27:44.510]to close this yield gap.
[00:27:47.000]If you may be familiar with, so this yield is quite similar
[00:27:52.960]to the hours that you obtaining here
[00:27:55.070]for the United States.
[00:27:56.740]And the current nitrogen rate
[00:28:02.460]that the maize farmers are using
[00:28:06.200]in the United States around,
[00:28:07.610]almost 200 kilograms per hectare per year,
[00:28:09.680]which is quite close to the same value
[00:28:12.440]that we have estimate for production.
[00:28:15.690]And also we need just to also to increase the phosphorus
[00:28:19.260]and the sulfur level,
[00:28:20.403]and the same is happening for all the crops.(coughs)
[00:28:26.730]Well, so far I have shown you all these analysis
[00:28:29.980]that we have been doing mainly based on this database,
[00:28:33.800]and some requirement mainly based on the nutrient
[00:28:39.560]requirement just to achieve that yield.
[00:28:42.180]But we have also some data with own farm validation
[00:28:46.360]for what we are seeing.
[00:28:48.356]So we have a database for different trials
[00:28:52.050]in producer fields.
[00:28:53.160]So these are not experiments that were done
[00:28:55.410]in small pieces of land.
[00:28:59.280]So they were all done in producer field.
[00:29:02.100]They include 10 cropping seasons.
[00:29:04.970]They are side-by-side comparisons
[00:29:07.000]in which they have two treatments,
[00:29:08.940]one in which they use the current nutrient rate,
[00:29:11.660]that is quite similar to the nutrient rate
[00:29:13.323]that I will show you.
[00:29:15.578]This is the treatment that is called here, "PROD".
[00:29:18.820]Because is the treatment
[00:29:20.423]that the producer is doing right now,
[00:29:22.530]versus a higher nutrient rate
[00:29:23.850]that is mainly based on the target yield
[00:29:26.510]or what we call the attainable yield
[00:29:30.050]for each of these cases,
[00:29:32.939]we call it here "NUT"
[00:29:33.850]because it's high in nutrition treatment.
[00:29:37.630]So we have those other for maize, for wheat.
[00:29:40.580]And just showing here for soybean.
[00:29:45.120]You can see here for comparison,
[00:29:47.280]the values of nutrient rates used by the producers,
[00:29:52.520]and the values that we were reporting on average,
[00:29:55.220]which are quite similar.
[00:29:57.260]There are very only very small differences,
[00:30:00.460]and the nutrient rates that are used
[00:30:08.520]in the nutrient treatment.
[00:30:10.070]So we increase the amount of nutrients
[00:30:12.120]that we are applying.
[00:30:15.210]So if we compare these two treatments,
[00:30:19.590]those are the graph that you are seeing here
[00:30:21.510]on the right side.
[00:30:23.150]So here we have the grain yield in milligrams per hectare.
[00:30:27.027]And here We have the different field-year in number cases.
[00:30:32.040]So in the yellow bars represent the yield,
[00:30:34.760]obtained in the treatment with current fertilizer rates
[00:30:37.620]used by the producer and the yield response
[00:30:40.080]that is generated for the additional nutrient application
[00:30:41.878]is shown in red here.
[00:30:46.451]You can see here that on average,
[00:30:50.713]an increase in the amount of nutrient
[00:30:53.700]through higher fertilizer rate
[00:30:55.800]is increasing the maize yield by 50%,
[00:30:58.550]the wheat yield by 22%,
[00:31:00.600]and the soybean yield by 13%,
[00:31:02.960]which is very similarly equivalent
[00:31:05.470]to close the exploitable yield gap
[00:31:08.270]for all those crops in Argentina.
[00:31:12.760]So we can, the main point here is that,
[00:31:13.724]with own farm trials.
[00:31:17.350]we are seeing that, is it possible to increase the yield?
[00:31:20.884]We are increasing the amount of nutrients
[00:31:21.717]that we are using right now,
[00:31:29.996]if we want to estimate, okay.
[00:31:31.801]what those nutrient balances means
[00:31:36.750]in terms of nutrient mining in Argentina.
[00:31:40.830]So I estimate here for the case of nitrogen,
[00:31:43.820]phosphorous and sulfur.
[00:31:45.900]the mining with the actual yield.
[00:31:48.210]so we have a mining
[00:31:49.190]of around 0.24 million tons per year.
[00:31:55.450]So if we translate that into fertilizer,
[00:31:58.210]so we will need 0.77 million tons of soybean,
[00:32:03.180]of urea sorry,
[00:32:05.450]just to get that amount of nutrient
[00:32:09.310]that we are mining right now.
[00:32:12.310]We also, I also did the same estimation
[00:32:14.520]for, you can sit here for phosphorus
[00:32:16.510]and the equivalent here in triple superphosphate.
[00:32:20.490]Or the same for sulfur
[00:32:21.323]and the equivalent in calcium phosphate.
[00:32:24.940]I also here highlight in green,
[00:32:28.870]for the case of potassium.
[00:32:30.770]So this is the nutrient
[00:32:32.690]that we are mining the most right now,
[00:32:35.390]we are mining around 1.14 million tons per year
[00:32:39.530]across the country.
[00:32:41.515]That is equivalent to 2.3 million tons
[00:32:45.520]of potassium chloride.
[00:32:49.670]And of course, as I mentioned before,
[00:32:53.430]we still have very high values
[00:32:55.330]in all our soil for potassium,
[00:32:57.790]but in the last two or three years,
[00:33:02.155]in some provinces that have, let's say
[00:33:05.454]the soils with the lowest potassium content.
[00:33:08.470]We are starting to see some response
[00:33:13.307]in the crops to an extra amount of potassium.
[00:33:18.010]So that will probably start to continue,
[00:33:20.690]you know, for all the other across the country.
[00:33:23.190]But right now they use of potassium
[00:33:26.900]in the crops is almost zero.
[00:33:31.090]So you can see here,
[00:33:31.923]what that means in terms for all these nutrients.
[00:33:34.890]So we have a mining for the three main nutrients
[00:33:38.642]that right now are deficient,
[00:33:40.990]or of around 0.7 million tons
[00:33:44.720]that translates into 2.7 million tons of fertilizer
[00:33:50.160]to compensate for that nutrient mining.
[00:33:55.930]Good news, is that,
[00:33:57.670]well, the fertilizer use in Argentina is increasing.
[00:34:05.010]So this is the current nutrient use
[00:34:07.784]in million tons per year.
[00:34:10.520]That has been increasing steadily,
[00:34:13.437]but if we take into account the amount
[00:34:15.330]that we need for a zero nitrogen balance,
[00:34:20.220]Sorry, so we need to increase around 50%,
[00:34:25.070]the amount of fertilizers that we are using
[00:34:27.490]to achieve zero nitrogen balance.
[00:34:30.470]And we almost need to double the amount of fertilizers
[00:34:37.350]that we are using if we want just us to close the yield.
[00:34:47.423]that there is something important just to mention,
[00:34:49.740]is that one of the main questions
[00:34:53.638]that usually are right here
[00:34:55.450]or that I have been asked
[00:34:58.430]when I present these in Argentina
[00:35:01.870]or for Argentinian farmers or researchers
[00:35:04.610]is well, if we have if we increase
[00:35:06.510]the amount of fertilizer that we are using by that amount,
[00:35:10.690]there might be some issues
[00:35:12.160]as the one that you may be more familiar
[00:35:14.740]with that are all the nitrogen loses
[00:35:18.240]that we may have to the environment or phosphorus losses.
[00:35:22.800]But it's just important just to show you some of them.
[00:35:27.840]What the literature says about this.
[00:35:30.340]And here we have the yield losses in both cases
[00:35:34.470]as a function of the Nitrogen surplus.
[00:35:37.270]So zero means like a zero balance.
[00:35:39.740]So we are here, we're in the region
[00:35:42.620]where we are mining the soil
[00:35:46.277]and so any increase in the fertilizer use
[00:35:50.270]that we can do where it's still very very far away
[00:35:53.320]from any possible nitrogen losses.
[00:35:57.490]Of course this is when we see the whole picture.
[00:36:03.670]There may be some case in which these balances
[00:36:07.300]are a little more negative,
[00:36:08.133]or they are close to zero or a little bit positive,
[00:36:12.150]but in general, across the country
[00:36:14.690]we're still very far away from having any impact
[00:36:20.594]on any negative impact of using
[00:36:24.330]higher amount of fertilizers.
[00:36:27.530]What are the take home messages?
[00:36:30.360]First basis of on an increasing global food demand,
[00:36:35.520]we have a competitive agricultural sector of Argentina.
[00:36:38.067]We have also an intermediate yield gap.
[00:36:40.980]So we are in an excellent position
[00:36:43.470]to intensify the crop production
[00:36:45.260]for the next 30 years,
[00:36:47.990]The current nutrient rates that we are using,
[00:36:50.060]they are NOT sufficient to close the exploitable yield gap
[00:36:53.732]They are not even sufficient
[00:36:55.260]for the current yields that we have.
[00:36:58.080]And in many cases,
[00:36:59.170]they are indicating nutrient mining in our soils.
[00:37:04.148]And there is a reason period
[00:37:06.860]where the areas that's already happened.
[00:37:10.750]So any program that aims just to increase
[00:37:13.270]the current productivity in our curbing system
[00:37:16.710]in a sustainable way,
[00:37:18.080]we will require from an explicit recognition
[00:37:21.920]of the need, just to increase
[00:37:23.640]the use of fertilizers in Argentina.
[00:37:28.420]I just want to mention that I am presenting here
[00:37:35.105]this research, but there are a lot of people here involved.
[00:37:38.890]I would like to send to all of them
[00:37:41.960]and especially to the people from ReTAA,
[00:37:46.380]because they have such a data research,
[00:37:49.600]that is was the one that made all this work possible.
[00:37:52.370]So thanks to all of them,
[00:37:54.883]I was sent to you and thank you for your time.
[00:37:57.680]And now for this, I think we are open to questions.
[00:38:01.664]I thank you very much Pablo
[00:38:03.560]for this excellent helicopter view
[00:38:05.310]about the nutrient balances in South America,
[00:38:08.732]and also for not only you know, showing the problem,
[00:38:12.320]but also elaborating on the solutions agenda.
[00:38:15.720]So I really appreciate that.
[00:38:17.300]So let's open now for questions.
[00:38:19.270]In the meantime Pablo I have a question for you.
[00:38:24.368]You, talk about, I mean to show the response to fertilizer,
[00:38:28.080]but many prime, some of our colleagues here
[00:38:31.590]are wondering if those responses
[00:38:34.197]are economically profitable.
[00:38:36.430]So can you talk a little bit about if those yield responses
[00:38:41.610]also deliver economic benefits to farmers.
[00:38:45.453]Still other people are submitting now other question.
[00:38:47.380]So let's start with that one.
[00:38:49.410]Yes, thank you for that question,
[00:38:51.060]but as usually I forgot to mention that.
[00:38:54.430]So based on, let's say on the, yes,
[00:39:00.930]I think it was on the 10 year average
[00:39:03.658]for the nutrient and grain prices,
[00:39:08.040]on average for these crops,
[00:39:09.840]the response was around two times.
[00:39:11.590]So you get two times the money
[00:39:15.610]that you are investing in the fertilizer.
[00:39:18.530]So is it possible to increase the amount of fertilizer
[00:39:21.960]that we are using and is it possible or profitable.
[00:39:25.020]And do you remember about what was the ratio
[00:39:27.210]between the benefit to cost ratio?
[00:39:32.020]Yes, two times.
[00:39:33.220]Two times, okay.
[00:39:34.053]Well, Sorry.
[00:39:34.900]Great, thank you.
[00:39:35.950]Okay, there is a question here submitted by Thomas.
[00:39:38.060]And is, could you please repeat the treatment
[00:39:40.690]identified as NUT in their own farm trials?
[00:39:43.997]NUT yes, so this is the treatment
[00:39:46.680]in which we increase the amount of fertilizer,
[00:39:52.180]and that amount of fertilizer was anxious
[00:39:56.490]to achieve the yield potential
[00:40:00.340]or the attainable yield potential
[00:40:01.750]for each of their location.
[00:40:02.710]In comparison, the nutrient rates
[00:40:06.290]are used by the farmer or the producer,
[00:40:08.980]and the nutrient rates that we are using in this treatment.
[00:40:12.710]So in all the cases,
[00:40:13.940]the new rates are higher,
[00:40:16.168]and they are quite in line with the nutrient rates,
[00:40:19.434]that we are estimating just to close the yield gap.
[00:40:24.000]Except for the case of nitrogen,
[00:40:26.290]I'm not sure here the balances,
[00:40:28.430]but for this case,
[00:40:29.510]the balances are a little bit negative.
[00:40:33.430]So which means that maybe these rates
[00:40:36.170]should be a little bit high.
[00:40:38.920]And all these database,
[00:40:40.500]and these other races from fertilizer association,
[00:40:46.209]which is the fertilizer association in Argentina.
[00:40:49.300]And they are also coming from Korea groups
[00:40:52.610]that are, let's say like farmer organizations
[00:40:56.590]or across the country.
[00:40:58.030]So all these experiments are made on farmer fields.
[00:41:02.770]So there is another question here from Authria,
[00:41:06.220]and it's about nutrient losses,
[00:41:12.810]and he's asking the following.
[00:41:14.770]Is it applicable for this work
[00:41:16.660]to discuss fertilizer technologies tools,
[00:41:19.340]that can help to reduce
[00:41:20.177]potential nutrient losses both applications.
[00:41:23.200]So in a way, the question will be,
[00:41:25.120]I mean, if I have to rephrase the question,
[00:41:26.530]I will say, besides increasing nutrient rates,
[00:41:30.900]is there a way to get additional yield increasing
[00:41:34.490]by improving the efficiency in the use of fertilizer?
[00:41:37.240]Yes, that's a good question.
[00:41:40.880]Especially for the case of nitrogen,
[00:41:43.137]in wheat and maize.
[00:41:46.890]So I think the farmers are quite aware of that,
[00:41:51.270]and especially in this year
[00:41:52.810]with such a high nutrient prices,
[00:41:56.460]But yes, pleading for sure is pleading
[00:41:58.930]the amount of nitrogen that they're using
[00:42:00.710]is one of the ways to increase efficiency.
[00:42:03.300]And that sounds
[00:42:04.133]you know that's yeah, it's a little bit different
[00:42:07.110]from Argentina to here.
[00:42:09.320]So farmers in Argentina,
[00:42:10.570]they mainly apply nitrogen once they sown the crop.
[00:42:15.540]So most of the applications of nitrogen,
[00:42:17.680]they are at sewing or at the B6 or BH stage for maize
[00:42:23.820]and all the application for nitrogen,
[00:42:26.270]most of the application for nitrogen
[00:42:28.110]they are also after the wheat is sown.
[00:42:31.900]And so there is, I think a very combination
[00:42:36.420]between when the nutrients are applied
[00:42:38.480]and when they are uptake by the crops.
[00:42:42.740]So again, that the answer to that question
[00:42:43.713]is that yes, there are ways
[00:42:45.923]to improve the uptake efficiency.
[00:42:49.805]Yeah, but I think that that will be more important
[00:42:53.330]once we reach the nutrient rates that we are targeting
[00:42:58.970]in this world or so.
[00:43:00.330]Okay great, thank you Pablo.
[00:43:02.270]All right, so the reason I questioned
[00:43:04.340]about the NUT treatment
[00:43:06.445]in this where you increase the MPNs
[00:43:09.950]in the NUT treatments,
[00:43:10.783]and you clearly show
[00:43:12.210]that yes, the MPNs was increased in the NUT treatment.
[00:43:16.980]Yes.
[00:43:17.813]So we don't need to go through that one.
[00:43:20.130]So then there is a question from Aconsado
[00:43:24.200]who is very nicely complimenting your presentation,
[00:43:27.720]but then, he's kind of criticizing your conclusion
[00:43:36.670]about the, you know, that there is no reason
[00:43:40.300]to worry about the environmental impact,
[00:43:42.070]given even the current level of application.
[00:43:44.962]And he's interested,
[00:43:47.670]well, he's asking
[00:43:48.503]kind of a one million dollar question there,
[00:43:50.410]because he's asking for environmental thresholds.
[00:43:53.120]So he's asking you to elaborate
[00:43:55.522]a little bit more about, you know,
[00:43:57.580]how much we can push nutrient
[00:43:59.830]for this application while keeping
[00:44:02.140]the negative environmental impact, precisely low,
[00:44:08.260]Yes okay, I will try to,
[00:44:11.590]so let's say we are reaching a zero balance.
[00:44:16.190]That means that the amount of nitrogen
[00:44:18.010]that we are striking within grains,
[00:44:20.760]It's similar to the amount that we are applying.
[00:44:24.470]So and in that case,
[00:44:25.880]we are not taking into account
[00:44:27.317]other nitrogen losses
[00:44:29.730]because we are just taking into account for this analysis,
[00:44:32.880]the amount applied with the fertilizer,
[00:44:34.800]the amount extracting with the grain,
[00:44:36.610]the amount removed with the grain sorry.
[00:44:40.440]So if we also take into account,
[00:44:42.530]let's say the amount of nitrogen
[00:44:44.573]that is lost and the amount of nitrogen
[00:44:47.250]that we also need
[00:44:49.120]just to maintain the soil organic matter levels.
[00:44:53.010]So that means that we would probably have to be more close
[00:44:57.680]to a nitrogen balance between 30 to 50 kilograms
[00:45:05.070]to a positive nitrogen balance between 30 to 50 kilograms,
[00:45:08.117]just to, let's say, to maintain the soil organic matter.
[00:45:14.880]And just to add all the nitrogen
[00:45:18.501]that would have been removed with the grains.
[00:45:20.440]If we all just let's say like below or above that threshold,
[00:45:25.260]that is where the amount of nitrogen
[00:45:29.120]that we are losing in other forms.
[00:45:34.240]They will start to increase.
[00:45:37.660]Though I think that that value
[00:45:39.190]will be like a reasonable value.
[00:45:41.490]There are may be you can say something over these,
[00:45:44.930]but the ratio that you have in mind
[00:45:46.750]they were done by Fatima Tenorio
[00:45:51.530]that I think he's reaching some similar conclusions
[00:45:56.270]regarding that threshold.
[00:45:58.387]Well, that's a very good question,
[00:46:02.755]but thank you, yes.
[00:46:05.960]The work of Fatima shows that, you know,
[00:46:09.120]nitrogen losses per unit of yield
[00:46:13.665]are fairly low until an energy imbalance
[00:46:19.918]of plus 70 kilos of nitrogen per hectare.
[00:46:22.497]And above that threshold,
[00:46:24.230]they start to increase exponentially.
[00:46:26.050]So if you for a farmer
[00:46:28.460]who is within I would say 20 to 50 kilos
[00:46:32.350]of nitrogen balance that's a kind of a safety zone to be,
[00:46:36.080]because we know that within that range,
[00:46:38.700]you can maximize here,
[00:46:39.533]but at the same time and then they yield
[00:46:42.120]the nutrient loss is fairly low.
[00:46:44.270]Fairly low yeah.
[00:46:45.270]I do have another question here from me,
[00:46:49.150]when I'm waiting for others to submit
[00:46:51.470]theirs it's about, you mentioned many points
[00:46:55.050]during your presentation
[00:46:56.070]that for example in the case
[00:46:57.660]of Phosphorous was the you know there was net mining
[00:47:02.500]in some areas like in the Northern region,
[00:47:05.230]but however there was no reason
[00:47:08.140]for concern and leave for now
[00:47:09.960]because those holes the north are kind of new
[00:47:12.780]for agriculture and therefore they still have
[00:47:14.618]high levels of phosphorus.
[00:47:16.560]And therefore you cannot know until they become limiting.
[00:47:20.410]And then you brought this to the whole country
[00:47:23.730]in the case of potassium
[00:47:24.600]you in which you indicate
[00:47:25.860]that given the young nature of their social media
[00:47:30.860]you can allow some mining until you see
[00:47:34.260]some indication of deficiencies
[00:47:36.110]as you indicated it is the case in recent years.
[00:47:38.540]So in relation to these kind of mining
[00:47:43.490]that is okay for now
[00:47:45.000]what I mean, can you elaborate a little bit
[00:47:46.393]about what will be your efforts,
[00:47:48.030]your longterm strategy to deal with them,
[00:47:50.550]and what would you suggest to deal with them
[00:47:53.330]to try to anticipate that and already start to apply
[00:47:56.740]a little bit of nutrients to try not to get
[00:47:58.820]to an deficiency level,
[00:48:00.170]or you will simply let both soil
[00:48:02.290]to be mindful potassium and think you're starting
[00:48:05.270]to see the deficiencies
[00:48:06.950]and then maybe you know,
[00:48:08.483]implement a plan of simple replacement to deal with them.
[00:48:14.400]What would you gonna do?
[00:48:15.770]That's a good question.
[00:48:16.767]But I think I will answer that question
[00:48:20.220]just with a farmer mind and with a farmer mindset.
[00:48:25.630]And what we are observing here is that nitrogen
[00:48:30.670]is so deficient, phosphorus is so deficient.
[00:48:33.560]So that I think that we are initiating a picture
[00:48:39.440]for the whole country let's say.
[00:48:41.120]we should focus on increasing
[00:48:42.550]the amount of nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur
[00:48:45.210]that we are using
[00:48:46.043]and we can keep mining some potassium and some phosphorus
[00:48:50.410]in some parts of the country
[00:48:51.826]till they start to become limiting for the crops.
[00:48:56.380]Because as I shown you before.
[00:48:59.370]So the amount of for example of nitrogen
[00:49:04.120]that we have to increase, just so high.
[00:49:06.620]That just to tell the farmers also to take into account
[00:49:09.870]one of the nutrient that is not already limiting,
[00:49:12.980]I don't think that is gonna be easy.
[00:49:15.080]So I think it's easier at this stage
[00:49:18.760]just to concentrate on those nutrients
[00:49:20.590]that are very limiting right now,
[00:49:23.180]and to start increasing those ones.
[00:49:25.320]And then we can start with the other ones,
[00:49:28.900]but I won't worry too much
[00:49:31.450]about potassium right now in Argentina.
[00:49:34.770]Only in a few areas it is starting to be limiting,
[00:49:37.520]but I will worry more about nitrogen and phosphorus.
[00:49:41.350]That is clearly limiting the yields
[00:49:43.181]that we have in our crops.
[00:49:44.953]Well, I guess I message for everybody,
[00:49:46.864]that Pablo is trying to translate
[00:49:47.960]is that we should look at this from a plant perspective
[00:49:51.360]rather than a soil perspective, all right.
[00:49:55.630]Yeah the economic perspective and soil also.
[00:49:58.790]Ready to wrap up for today,
[00:50:01.960]I wanna thank again Pablo for your excellent presentation
[00:50:08.450]about the nutrient balances in South America.
[00:50:12.730]We also want to thank the people who submitted questions,
[00:50:15.410]and as always, if you have any follow-up questions,
[00:50:19.325]feel free to contact Pablo,
[00:50:22.480]and thank you very much.

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Soil Mining in Cropping Systems in Argentina

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