Journalist. Bahía Blanca Sports Journalists Circle. He was editor of the magazine Encestando (1985-2000). Since 1987 he has worked in the newspaper La Nueva Provincia (today La Nueva.). He went through the Sports, The Region and The City sections, where he currently works. He has specialized in agricultural journalism since 2001. Member of the Buenos Aires Association of Agricultural Journalists. Responsible for the websites of the Livestock Breeders Association (AGA) and Abopa.
The search for tools that contribute to greater productivity and efficiency in sustainable environments is the minimum objective in the highly productive areas of Argentina that are located in the so-called Nucleus, where the average annual rainfall is around 1,100 millimeters.
Transport the same intentions to the region near the port of Bahía Blanca, with soils of different characteristics and a rainfall range of 600 millimeters —example: until this week in the Villa Iris area, 110 kilometers from our city, it had rained 290 mm — requires a necessary alliance with technological innovation.
In this semi-arid context, the question is the following: how convenient is crop fertilization?
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Dr. Martín Díaz Zorita, who graduated from the National University of La Pampa, developed his master’s degree at the National University of the South and received his doctorate at the University of Kentucky, United States, explains it this way: “Fertilization plays a role key in semi-arid areas, since it balances the concentration of the elements at the necessary time and in the appropriate quantity so that photosynthesis occurs and transpiration can be efficient. If there is something that is missing in semi-arid environments it is water, but with what we have we achieve the concentration of nutrients that allows us to generate more life.”
He also said that quite a few research works show that the greatest impact—whether relative or absolute—in kilos of grains or dry matter produced by each millimeter of water in response to fertilization is greater in semi-arid areas.
In this sense, Díaz Zorita considered a doctoral thesis presented – at the UNS – by Carolina L. Gaggioli, from the UNLP, who evaluated the contribution of fertilization in winter crops in soils of the semi-arid region in years with abundance of water and with drought.
“Dr. Gaggioli confirmed that fertilization always improves water use efficiency, but not only in kilos, but in value. That is, it is advisable not to neglect nutrition in semi-arid environments because, in a proven way, in this way we give value to water,” says Díaz Zorita, who spoke with The New during the events for the 30 years of Fertilizar AC held recently in Buenos Aires.
Dr. Martín Díaz Zorita was recognized for his contribution to research on soil care.
“How does a semi-arid region connect with fertilization? In the simplest way: agricultural systems are alive because plants grow. And for a plant to grow it requires transpiring, but not only water, but a mineral solution enters there that gives meaning to the formation of its structures. That is, in a pasture it is grass and in a crop crop it is the structures that will produce the grains,” he says.
“The nutrients are in balance with that solution and give meaning to a historical average productivity to something that follows natural rhythms,” he describes.
“When we incorporate improvements we plant a pasture, which is naturally native; When we do intensive grazing and when we seek to make crops more efficient in producing biomass and then making grain, we are adapting the plant part with management, or with genetic improvement, but the soil at its level of response continues with an ancient memory of supply and dynamics of nutrients”, he defines.
Díaz Zorita graduated from UNLP as an agricultural engineer in March 1991 and, just one month later, began a master’s degree in Agronomy at UNS.
“The topic of the master’s degree, carried out with Dr. Norman Peinemann, was on the relationship between soil properties and wheat production in the semi-arid environment. It was a research project carried out together with Dr. Daniel Buschiazzo, also a graduate of UNS and already a professor at UNLP,” he recalls.
Roberto Rotondaro, head of Fertilizar AC, at the celebration of the entity’s 30 years, where Dr. Díaz Zorita was honored.
“In Bahía Blanca I had my belonging groups. Thus I was able to coincide with Alberto Quiroga and be part of the organic matter team together with doctors Ramón Rosell, Juan Galantini, Julio Iglesias, María Rosa Landriscini, Oscar Bravo, Mercedes Ron and Pablo Zalba, all teachers and researchers who analyzed, in depth, the role of the soil in the production systems of the semi-arid region,” he says.
From that furnished apartment at General Paz 48, Díaz Zorita moved to work at INTA General Villegas (until 2002), although in the interregnum he completed his doctorate in Kentucky. “The work was to link a deep discussion about the role of soil physics and crop production. I had the guidance of doctors John H. Grove and Edd Perfect with an agronomic and theoretical vision to interpret the value of direct sowing as a consolidator of the structural state of agricultural soils,” he recalls.
Díaz Zorita has been working at UNLP for 5 years (most recently, as a full professor in crop production). He is also the coordinator of the Fertilizar AC Technical Committee and, although he now resides in Santa Rosa, he always remembers his beginnings: “In Bahía Blanca I learned the value of teamwork. It is something that marks me to this day.”
OTHER TOPICS OF THIS SAME COLUMN:
—Argentine soil: why is analyzing only 30% not enough to make decisions?
—Drones: the change that has already been installed in spraying programs
—Bordeu 2024: a seasonal atmosphere that is noticeable
—Rape: a booming winter crop for biofuels
—Cattle: when better productivity results in less environmental impact
—Livestock: why was the 2023/24 campaign an electrocardiogram?
—Agricultural machinery: signs of a revival appeared in August
—Agroexports: can it increase by US$ 20,000 million by 2030?
—Food: when sustainability becomes the focus of the debate
—Poultry farming: is it enough to reduce 25% of export duties?
—Carinata: when innovation goes beyond sustainability
—Wheat: behind the scenes of the challenge of feeding the world
—Weeds: why does management require (increasingly) a holistic treatment?
—Wheat in the southwest of Buenos Aires: when the cold is not a sensation
—Argentine livestock: what is the contribution measured in labor sources?
—Is livestock farming one of those responsible for global warming?
—Recycled plastic: another contribution from the producer towards sustainable agriculture
—Carbon markets: what is the direction of Argentina?
—Financial withholdings: a report from Bahia says that one million tons makes a difference
—We are peanuts: the world’s leading exporter redoubles its bet
—The soil of the southwest of Buenos Aires: one of lime and the other of sand
—How to communicate what happens behind the bars (in déjà vu mode)
—The climate in the southwest of Buenos Aires: when trust does not kill a man
—Dairy: another sector that asks for clear rules to grow again
—Beef: how it is produced matters, but more how it is communicated
—Soil: when the deterioration begins to be seen on the horizon (A)
—Bioeconomy: why should all actors be on the same page?
—The contrasts of livestock farming (from the Nucleus areas to the southwest of Buenos Aires)
—Economic variability is not enough: now the climate is added
—Export beef: why is it necessary to diversify markets?
—Truffles in the southwest of Buenos Aires: a (profitable) investment with long headlights vision
—The coming livestock (or the mother of all battles)
—Beef consumption increases: when quality is a compelling reason
—Wheat: what is the profile dreamed of by the chain?
—Unprecedented Argentina: produces food for 400 million (in the midst of 57% poverty)
—Almost an egg per day: the Argentine habit that reached the world podium
—Biofuels: what are the alternative projects in six provinces?
—The EU is committed to the consumption of products of plant origin. Do we care?
—How is the agricultural producer positioned with respect to the goods he produces?
—A higher tax on imports instead of raising withholdings (on the countryside)?
—Pork on the rise: increasingly closer to 20 kilos per inhabitant per year
—You can’t get more free: now, Argentine meat opens up to the world
AGRICULTURAL SCENARIO 2023: ALL THE YEAR’S COLUMNS APPEAR IN THIS LINK
AGRICULTURAL SCENARIO 2022: ALL THE COLUMNS OF THE YEAR APPEAR IN THIS LINK
