By Sarah Sutton
Alberta Farmer Express staff

Double cropping and soils that never freeze are foreign concepts to Canadian producers, but Alejandro Lopez Moriena believes that some of the sustainable farming practices in South America can be used worldwide.

The Argentine agronomic engineer, employed by Adecoagro, opened the final day of FarmTech 2008 in Edmonton on February 1, by describing how farmers in the “zona núcleo” region, where over 80 percent of the country’s corn, soybeans and wheat are grown, capitalize on technology including no-till practices, Roundup Ready traits, biotechnology corn and the newest planters, sprayers and combines.

Adecoagro, one of the largest food and energy producers in South America (established in 2002), owns over 270,000 hectares throughout Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, and employs about 3,800 people. Its main activities include crop, sugar, ethanol, coffee, beef and dairy production.

“We think we can do renewable and foods in a comparative and competitive way, while adhering to our values,” says Moriena, highlighting the region’s ability to double crop, inter-crop and grow crops year-round. He says Argentine farmers enjoy fertile soil, favourable climate, low costs, innovative technology, human potential and new areas that can be converted to farmland, but are faced with heavy export taxes.

Adecoagro produces 465,000 tonnes of diversified crops, 40 million litres of milk and 10 million kilograms of beef every year. Two months ago the company entered a joint venture with Canadian dairy co-operative Agropur to develop the milk industry in Argentina.

New projects for Adecoagro focus on ethanol production. One ethanol and cogeneration plant in Mato Grosso do Sulwill will have a final capacity of processing 11 million tonnes of sugar cane by 2015.

Adecoagro uses a “4F” approach to its farming practices: food, fibre, feed and fuel. All of the company’s projects are based on environmental care criteria, including soil care, crop growing restrictions, environmental impact assessments and legal reserves.

“We want to add value to our land, which is our main capital asset,” says Moriena.

While the company is opening up new areas in savannas, natural grasses, new brushes, weeds, and “pajonales” of South America, it is avoiding forested areas, which contribute greatly to water recycling. Adecoagro is also developing best practices in no-till on about 75 per cent of its land base, crop rotation, variable input management and balanced fertilizer. This requires a skilled workforce so the company provides intensive, high quality training to its farm workers.
 
“Large scale means we have to be doing the right thing in each area in each crop, which requires some sort of standardization,” says Moriena. Therefore, Adecoagro is pursuing ISO certification on its crop production.