By Agriculture. 24/02/2023 | 18:02
The company Yara, a world leader in the production and marketing of mineral fertilizers, carried out, together with a Regional Consortium for Agricultural Experimentation of the NOA, a test that put into concrete numbers the significant response of the bean crop to nitrogen fertilization.
In the study carried out together with CREA San Patricio in the Tucuman locality of Las Cejas, different fertilization strategies were applied, comparing them with the unfertilized control. The person in charge of the test on behalf of CREA was the agronomist Laura Carabaca, coordinator of the CREA Region NOA agricultural table and advisor to CREA San Patricio, who highlights: Thanks to this work that we carried out together with Yara Argentina and with exchanges of Yara Brazil, the region took another step in crop nutrition, was presented at different discussion tables and generated great interest among producers. This essay invites us to continue evaluating bean nutrition in the region in a network, which is a big question mark.
In the CREA San Patricio area it is a crop that in recent years has been gaining ground. Previously it was done occasionally, so it is still being learned. Generally, in the region, there is no fertilization strategy. The bean naturally fixes nitrogen but does not respond very well to inoculation, which is why a debate was generated about the response to bean fertilization in the group. From this, the test was generated, says Laura Carabaca, who emphasizes the promising data revealed by this work: We were able to observe that there is a great difference in yield between the fertilized lots versus the unfertilized control, which can vary, depending on the treatment chosen, from 581 to 775 kilos per hectare.
The strategy that obtained the highest yield consisted of a starter, a granular fertilizer, a foliar fertilizer and a biostimulant. The starter fertilizer used was one that contained nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, as well as zinc, magnesium, and sulfur, providing the necessary nutrients for the crop to develop correctly from the start. The granulated fertilizer that was used is a source of nitrogen in the form of ammonium nitrate, while the foliar fertilizer contains, among other nutrients, 35% calcium, which favors flower retention and grain setting. Regarding the biostimulant, it was applied preventively, since it is known that the response to this type of formulation is better when it is applied before stressful situations.
The challenges that this crop has in the region are many, and that is why it is also so interesting, new varieties must be explored, materials with shorter cycles must be found to escape early frosts, research on planting density, and continue looking for an answer. to the different fertilization strategies, it would be very interesting to be able to repeat it in different years and in a network with many producers in the region. Emphasizes the CREA San Patricio adviser.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, the cultivation of legumes is concentrated in the center and north of the country, while specifically the production of dry beans is located mainly in the northwest, in the provinces of Salta, Jujuy, Tucumán, Santiago del Estero and north of Santa Fe. The planted area is around 500,000 hectares. Regarding marketing, 40% is consumed in the domestic market and the remaining 60% is exported.
