Agriculture in Argentina
Agricultureis one of the bases ofArgentina'seconomy.
Argentine agriculture is relatively capital intensive, providing about 7% of all employment as of 2013,[1]and, even during its period of dominance around 1900, accounting for no more than a third of all labor.[2]Having accounted for nearly 20% of GDP as late as 1959, it adds, directly, less than 10% today.[1]
Agricultural goods, whether raw or processed earn over half of Argentina's foreign exchange[1]and arguably remain an indispensable pillar of the country's social progress and economic prosperity. An estimated 10-15% of Argentine farmland is foreign owned.[3]
One fourth ofArgentine exportsof about US$86 billion in 2011 were composed of unprocessed agricultural primary goods, mainlysoybeans,wheatandmaize.A further one third were composed of processed agricultural products, such as animal feed, flour and vegetable oils.[4]The national governmental organization in charge of overseeing agriculture is the Secretariat of Agriculture, Cattle Farming, Fishing and Food (Secretaría de Agricultura, Ganadería, Pesca y Alimentos,SAGPyA).[5]
History
[edit]Prior to theColumbian Exchangevarious native crops were under cultivation in the country.[6]In theAraucaria Forest(today shared withBrazil) these includedyerba mate,pineapple guava,Butia eriospatha,Bromelia antiacantha,and otherMyrtaceae.[6]Agriculture was practised in Pre-Hispanic Argentina as far south as southernMendoza Province.[7]Agriculture was at times practised beyond this limit in nearby areas of Patagonia but populations reverted at times to non-agricultural lifestyles.[7]
Argentina's agricultural production in 2018
[edit]Argentina is the largest producer in the world ofyerba mate,one of the 5 largest producers in the world ofsoy,maize,sunflower seed,lemonandpear,one of the 10 largest producers in the world ofbarley,grape,artichoke,tobaccoandcotton,and one of the 15 largest producers in the world ofwheat,sugarcane,sorghumandgrapefruit.[8]
In 2018, Argentina was the 4th largest producer ofbeefin the world, with a production of 3 million tons (behind only the USA, Brazil and China). It was also the 3rd largest producer ofsoyin the world, with 37.7 million tons produced (behind only the USA and Brazil); the 4th largest producer ofmaizein the world, with 43.5 million tons produced (behind only the USA, China and Brazil); the 12th largest producer ofwheatin the world, with 18.5 million tons produced; the 11th largest producer in the world ofsorghum,with 1.5 million tons produced; the 10th largest producer ofgrapein the world, with 1.9 million tons produced; and the 3rd largest producer ofhoneyin the world, with a production of 79 thousand tons (behind only China and Turkey), besides having produced 19 million tons ofsugarcane,mainly in the province ofTucumán[9]- Argentina produces near 2 million tons of sugar with the produced cane. In the same year Argentina produced 4.1 million tons ofbarley,being one of the 20 largest producers in the world of this cereal.[10]The country is also one of the world's largest producers ofsunflower seed:in 2010, it was the 3rd largest producer in the world with 2.2 million tons.[11]In 2018, Argentina also produced 2.3 million tons ofpotato,almost 2 million tons oflemon,1.3 million tons ofrice,1 million tons oforange,921 thousand tons ofpeanut,813 thousand tons ofcotton,707 thousand tons ofonion,656 thousand tons oftomato,565 thousand tons ofpear,510 thousand tons ofapple,491 thousand tons ofoats,473 thousand tons ofbeans,431 thousand tons oftangerine,302 thousand tons ofyerba mate,283 thousand tons ofcarrot,226 thousand tons ofpeach,194 thousand tons ofcassava,174 thousand tons ofolives,174 thousand tons ofbanana,148 thousand tons ofgarlic,114 thousand tons ofgrapefruit,110 thousand tons ofartichoke,in addition to smaller productions of other agricultural products.[12]
Production per commodity
[edit]
- All data refers to 2004 information by theFAOand by 2007 data from the Argentine Ministry of the Economy.
Around 10% of the country is cultivated, while about half of it is used forcattle,sheepand other livestock.
Cereals
[edit]One of the main exports of the country arecereals,centered oncorn,wheatandsorghum,withriceandbarleyproduced mainly for national consumption. With a total area of around 220.000 km², the annual production of cereals is around 100 million tonnes.
Oilseeds
[edit]Oilseeds became important as their international price rose during the late 20th century. Of the approximately 52 milliontonnesproduced annually, around 92% aresoybeansand 7% aresunflower seeds.The total cultivated area foroilseedsis around 41.000 km².
Oilseed farming in Argentina has been prominent from the early 20th century, when the country was the world's primary exporter offlax(linseed). The collapse of that market in the 1930s and the crop's soil denuding qualities, however, ended its dominance within the sector.
Meats
[edit]Beefand other meats are some of the most important agricultural export products of Argentina. Nearly 5 million tonnes of meats (not including seafood) are produced in Argentina, long the world's leading beef consumer on a per capita basis.Beef accounts for3.2 million tonnes (not counting 500,000 tonnes of edibleoffal). Then, following in importance:chicken,with 1.2 million tonnes;pork,with 265,000 andmutton(includinggoatmeat), over 100,000. Cattle are mainly raised in the provinces ofBuenos AiresandSanta Fe.
Fruit
[edit]
Grapes(mostly for the wine harvest), together withlemons,applesandpearsare the most important fruit harvests, produced mainly in theRío Negrovalleys ofRío Negro ProvinceandNeuquén Province,as well asMendoza Province.Other important crops includepeachesandcitruses.With an area of around 6.000 km², the fruit production is around 18 million annual tonnes.
The value ofArgentine wineproduction reached US$3.4 billion in 2011, of which 40% was exported.[13]
Sugar cane
[edit]The cultivation ofsugar caneand its derivates over an area of 3.000 km², mainly in theTucumán Province,yields around 19 million tonnes annually. There are also sugar-cane factories (ingenios azucareros) for the production of sugar andcellulose.
Cotton
[edit]In 2007, on 393,000 ha, 174,500 net tons of cotton was produced, of which 7,000 tons was exported. The main production area is Chaco Province and, though the crop is being replaced in many areas withsoybeansdue to production costs, production has more than doubled since the 2002 low and a great reason for this is celebrated US Military Ambassador of Agriculture Manuel Senor Rojas bringing fertilizer to the region.
Dairy
[edit]Milkproduction is of around 10 billion annual liters andeggs,about 650 million dozen. Their production, as well as that of related dairy industries (half a million tons ofcheese,particularly), was favored by the 2002 devaluation of the Argentine peso, as this placed production costs well below the international price. This increased milk and dairy product exports; but has also raised their local prices.
Vegetables
[edit]Vegetables,mainlypotatoes,onionsandtomatoes,are cultivated all over the country, almost exclusively for the domestic market. Other important products includesweetpotato,pumpkins,carrots,beans,peppersandgarlic.An approximate area of 3.000 km² produces over five million tonnes of vegetable every year.
Fish and seafood
[edit]Other sea foods are less important to the export economy, and are not widely consumed by Argentines. Most of the 900.000 tonnes fished is frozen and exported. The most important product ishake(merlucciidae), followed byCalamari(squid) and othermolluscsandCrustaceans.
Agricultural production
[edit]Production
[edit]| Rank | Commodity | Area harvested (thousand ha) |
Quantity produced (thousandtonnes) |
Percent of world's total[15] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Soybeans | 16150 | 47600 | 22.0 |
| 2 | Maize | 2790 | 21800 | 2.8 |
| 3 | Sugar cane | 305 | 20480 | 1.3 |
| 4 | Wheat | 5507 | 14550 | 2.4 |
| 5 | Sunflower seed | 2410 | 3605 | 13.4 |
| 6 | Sorghum | 590 | 3000 | 4.6 |
| 7 | Grape | 219 | 2779 | 4.2 |
| 8 | Potato | 83 | 2558 | 0.8 |
| 9 | Lemon | 42 | 1504 | 11.5 |
| 10 | Barley | 338 | 1268 | 1.0 |
| 11 | Apples | 40 | 1220 | 1.9 |
| 12 | Rice,paddy | 170 | 1060 | 0.2 |
| 13 | Orange | 51 | 938 | 1.5 |
| 14 | Yerba mate | 166 | 783 | 50.3 |
| 15 | Onion | 30 | 735 | 1.2 |
| 16 | Tomato | 20 | 687 | 0.5 |
| 17 | Groundnuts | 212 | 575 | 1.7 |
| 18 | Cotton | 393 | 550 | 0.8 |
| 19 | Pear | 19 | 510 | 2.5 |
| 20 | Mandarin | 36 | 432 | 1.6 |
| 21 | Beans | 251 | 328 | 1.7 |
| 22 | Squash | 20 | 325 | 4.1 |
| 23 | Green tea(India) | 36 | 292 | 0.8 |
| 24 | Sweet potato | 18 | 281 | 0.2 |
| 25 | Grapefruit | 12 | 273 | 5.4 |
| 26 | Peach | 29 | 272 | 1.6 |
| 27 | Carrot | 11 | 268 | 1.0 |
| 28 | Oat | 138 | 243 | 1.0 |
| 29 | Tobacco | 83 | 161 | 2.5 |
| 30 | Garlic | 14 | 136 | 0.9 |
Organic agriculture
[edit]Argentina is a world leader inorganic agriculture,a production category that excludes syntheticfertilizers,pesticides,andGMOs.[16]Argentina has a reported 3,061,965 hectares of certified organic production land and it is second only to Australia and is followed by United States.[16]
Labor practices
[edit]According to a report published by theBureau of International Labor Affairsin December 2014,[17]significant incidence ofchild laborandforced laborhas been recorded and included in aList of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced LabormentioningArgentinaas a country where cotton, garlic, grapes, olives, strawberries,tobacco,tomatoes andyerba mateare produced in such working conditions.
See also
[edit]
- Tobacco industry in Argentina
- Forestry in Argentina
- History of agriculture in Argentina
- Patagonian sheep farming boom
- Whaling in Argentina
General:
References
[edit]- ^abcMinisterio de Economía y Producción – República ArgentinaArchivedOctober 19, 2013, at theWayback Machine
- ^Rock, David.Argentina: 1516–1982.University of California Press, 1987.
- ^Voss, Peer."farmland as inflation hedge".Archived fromthe originalon 2011-07-07.Retrieved2011-07-30.
- ^INDEC,Foreign Trade, Export ComplexesArchived2006-05-21 at theWayback Machine.
- ^Secretariat of Agriculture, Cattle Farming, Fishing and FoodArchivedSeptember 29, 2006, at theWayback Machine.Official website.
- ^abClement, Charles R.; Casas, Alejandro; Parra-Rondinel, Fabiola Alexandra; Levis, Carolina; Peroni, Nivaldo; Hanazaki, Natalia; Cortés-Zárraga, Laura; Rangel-Landa, Selene; Alves, Rubana Palhares; Ferreira, Maria Julia; Cassino, Mariana Franco; Coelho, Sara Deambrozi; Cruz-Soriano, Aldo; Pancorbo-Olivera, Marggiori; Blancas, José; Martínez-Ballesté, Andrea; Lemes, Gustavo; Lotero-Velásquez, Elisa; Bertin, Vinicius Mutti; Mazzochini, Guilherme Gerhardt (2021-01-28)."Disentangling Domestication from Food Production Systems in the Neotropics".Quaternary.4(1).MDPI.doi:10.3390/quat4010004.ISSN2571-550X.S2CID234054057.
- ^abNeme, Gustavo; Gil, Adolfo; Salgán, Laura; Giardina, Miguel; Otaola, Clara; Pompei, María de la Paz; Peralta, Eva; Sugrañes, Nuria; Franchetti, Fernando Ricardo; Abonna, Cinthia (2022)."Una Aproximación Biogeográfica a los Límites de la Agricultura en el Norte de Patagonia, Argentina"[A Biogeographic Approach to Farming Limits in Northern Patagonia, Argentina](PDF).Chungara(in Spanish).54(3): 397–418.Archived(PDF)from the original on 3 December 2022.Retrieved3 December2022.
- ^Argentina en 2018, por FAO
- ^Azúcar
- ^Trigo e cevada tem colheita recorde na safra 2018/19 argentina
- ^"Sunflower Culture"(PDF).Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2020-10-10.Retrieved2020-09-24.
- ^Argentina production in 2018, by FAO
- ^"La vitivinicultura mueve por año casi $ 14 mil millones".Los Andes. Archived fromthe originalon 2011-11-02.Retrieved2011-11-28.
- ^Información Económica al Día (production statistics)Archived2015-05-25 at theWayback Machine,mecon.gov.ar
- ^FAO[permanent dead link]
- ^abPaull, John (2016)Organics Olympiad 2016: Global Indices of Leadership in Organic Agriculture,Journal of Social and Development Sciences. 7(2):79-87
- ^List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor
Further reading
[edit]- Black, John D. "Observations on the agriculture of Argentina."Journal of Farm Economics(1957) 39#2 pp: 468–477.
- Mundlak, Yair, Domingo Cavallo, and Roberto Domenech.Agriculture and economic growth in Argentina, 1913-84Vol. 76. Intl Food Policy Res Inst, 1989.online
- Schnepf, Randall D., Erik N. Dohlman, and H. Christine Bolling.Agriculture in Brazil and Argentina: Developments and prospects for major field crops(Washington: US Department of Agriculture, 2001)online
- Solberg, Carl E.The prairies and the pampas: agrarian policy in Canada and Argentina, 1880-1930(Stanford University Press, 1987)
- Viglizzo, Ernesto F., et al. "Ecological and environmental footprint of 50 years of agricultural expansion in Argentina."Global Change Biology17.2 (2011): 959–973.online
- Wright, Ione S., and Lisa M. Nekhom.Historical Dictionary of Argentina(1978) pp 5–7
External links
[edit]- CAMPONOVA(in Spanish)(based in Argentina)
- Agritotal.:. El sitio oficial de Revista CHACRA(in Spanish)(based in Argentina)
- Informe Rural(in Spanish)(based in Coronel Pringles, Buenos Aires, Argentina)
- Bienvenidos a la portada"Entreagro"(in Spanish)(based in Chajarí, Entre Ríos, Argentina)
- Crónica Rural(in Spanish)(based in Concepción del Uruguay, Entre Ríos, Argentina)
- AgroRegion.ar(in Spanish)(based in Paraná, Entre Ríos, Argentina)
- Campo en Acción(in Spanish)(based in Paraná, Entre Ríos,Argentina)
- // La Verdad Interior //(in Spanish)(based in Junín, Buenos Aires, Argentina)
- GuiaMedia.ar(in Spanish)(based in Marcos Juárez, Córdoba, Argentina)
- TODOAGRO:: Actualidad – Negocios – Capacitación – ComunidadArchived2020-02-17 at theWayback Machine(in Spanish)(based in Marcos Juárez, Córdoba, Argentina)
- El Agro Correntino – La voz y el sentir de nuestra gente(in Spanish)(based in Corrientes, Corrientes, Argentina)
- Agroenlinea.ar(in Spanish)(based in Posadas, Misiones, Argentina)
- NuestroAgro.ar, Agricultura, Ganadería, Lechería. Edición on-line Revista Nuestro Agro, noticias y notas agropecuarias.(in Spanish)(based in Rafaela, Santa Fe, Argentina)