Farmland Rental Prices in GM Soybean Areas of Argentina: Do Contractual Arrangements Matter?

A New Approach to Weed Management to Mitigate Herbicide Resistance in Argentina

“…This trend favors larger well-capitalized producers, whereas landowners unable to work their own farms due to equipment costs and high taxes often rent or sell their land. Choumert and Phelinas (2015) reported in their analysis of factors affecting land rental prices in the Argentine Pampas that almost 750/0 of land parcels surveyed were owned by nonproducers, either retired farmers or individuals who had left farming. In many cases, when farmers die, their children choose to study or work elsewhere rather than take over the farm; the land is either rented or sold to new owners, often divided into smaller areas, depending on the number of heirs (Manciana et al 2009).…”

“…Some of this increase in rental costs reflects improved soybean yields, which are now up to 5 tonnes ha-1 compared to the 3 tonnes ha-1 that were typical in the 1990s (Compaiiia Argentina de Tierras 2016). Land rental prices are driven by the attractive profitability of agricultural commodity production in a volatile economy, while high land prices and difficulty of obtaining credit prevent smaller tenant farmers from becoming owners (Choumert and Phelinas 2015).…”

“…Prior to 1985, the total area of soybean production in Argentina was approximately 250/0 of what it is today (Choumert and Phelinas 2015). A major reason for this change was the introduction of glyphosate-resistant (GR) soybean varieties, which were rapidly adopted by farmers due to easy weed control and lower herbicide costs; within 4 yr of their introduction in 1996, GR varieties comprised over 900/0 of soybean grown in Argentina (Penna and Lema 2003).…”

“…This resulted in a steep decline in forage production for livestock; in a 001: 10.1614/WS-D-16-00016.1 , million ha by 2002 (Bert et al 2011;Sili and Soumoulou 2011); Urcola et al (2015) reported that in Balcarce district in Buenos Aires province, the percentage of leased farms doubled between 1988 and 2010. By 2013 land leasing had come to predominate as the new agricultural organization model in Argentina, with more than 600/0 of land in the main soybean-producing areas farmed under rental agreements, and 900/0 of leased agricultural land farmed under fixed-term rental contracts, an increasing proportion of these contracts being for a single growing season (Choumert and Phelinas 2015;Delvenne et al 2013).…”

Re-primarização revisitada:

“…In this paper, however, we argue for a more in-depth analysis of the interrelated effects of neo-extractivism with soy production and hypothesise that the Argentine case has to be treated differently. In particular, we explore potential (non-) factors of changes (CABRINI, CALCATERRA, 2016;CHOUMERT, PHÉLINAS, 2016) in the production scheme over the last three decades. In so doing, we follow two arguments:…”