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The Food Issue
2016
Grains
West
22
I
f you had to pick one word to describe
Argentinian grain farmer Santiago Del
Solar, it would have to be “adaptable.” In
his years on the farm he has had to face
many challenges, including troubling soil
degradation, burdensome government
regulations and climate change. Like
most farmers, Del Solar faced each
challenge head-on, adapting when
necessary, and making positive changes
with one eye on the future as often as
possible. It’s this adaptability that has
made him the success that he is today.
Both sides of Del Solar’s family have
been farming since the 1830s. At that
time, they were “gauchos,” or cattle
ranchers who worked on horses. While
they raised cattle, they didn’t grow many
crops. Their steers were exported to the
European market, especially to the U.K.,
mainly as chilled beef.
In the 1980s, Del Solar’s father and
uncle started to plant more crops,
rotating alfalfa pastures into the crops.
Soon, though, they started seeing
soil erosion, a problem that seriously
concerned them.
Despite resistance from the older
generation, Del Solar stopped grazing
cattle entirely and moved into crop
production, growing corn, barley,
sunflower, wheat and soybeans. Due
to strict, government-imposed export
quotas on corn and wheat, his focus has
been on soybean production. As of this
year, however, the quotas have been
lifted, leaving Del Solar free to plant more
corn and wheat. “We are happy about
that,” he said.
To tackle the soil erosion problem, Del
Solar started using no-till practices and
working with precision agriculture, while
also adopting advanced machinery such
as sprayers, seed drills and tractors. Using
satellite information and yield maps, he
has been able to tailor each crop to the
soil, using the exact amount of fertilizer
needed by that crop. Del Solar said the
change has greatly impacted his farming
practice, especially in sandy soils and for
his corn crops. Soil erosion is no longer
a problem, so Del Solar has turned his
focus to other challenges.
“We need more tools to see what
is going on in our farms,” he said.
“We need more ‘eyes’ than the usual
and irreplaceable scouting that the
agronomists and farmers do on a daily
basis. Satellite info and drones are our
new eyes.”
Dealing with climate change is another
big challenge on the farm. Del Solar said
rain variability in Argentina is always a
surprise. “We had 1,450 mm one year
and less than 600 mm in another; the
average is 820 mm, but averages never
happen,” he explained. “You never know
what you’re going to get.”
Luckily, Argentinian farmers have
access to tools that help mitigate the
impact of climate change. For instance,
heavy rainfall can make grain transport
virtually impossible on rural roads, which
is especially problematic around harvest
time. Farmers, though, designed plastic
silo bags that have allowed them to store
grain for several months at a time. When
roads improve, they can again ship and
sell their grain.
As a sixth-generation farmer, Del
Solar loves working in one of the most
important industries in the world.
“Producing food that will be soon on
someone’s plate is the most amazing
experience you can have,” he said. “It’s
nice to go to sleep knowing that my team
and my family and I have done something
to feed the world that day.”
Today, Del Solar farms 6,500 acres of
his family’s farmland andmanages nearly
25,000 acres on local farms. He sits on
the board of the Argentine Association
of Regional Consortiums for Agricultural
Experimentation, an organization of
farmers that works to improve production.
Resilient in the
face of change
FROM GAUCHO TO GRAIN FARMER, ARGENTINE
FARMER EMBRACES THE UNKNOWN
BY MELANIE EPP
Photo: Courtesy of Santiago Del Solar