(Photo courtesy by Nutrien: Stine Seeds Argentina general manager, Ignacio Rosasco, presenting the “planted seed” proposal)
Buenos Aires, February 25th. One of the largest and famous soybean breeding companies in the US is currently operating in Argentina, the third largest world soybean producer, when soybean seed market is hoarded by local firms like Don Mario or Nidera (now, part of Syngenta) and Santa Rosa Semillas.
Stine Seeds Argentina is based in Venado Tuerto, an iconic rural city in the heart of the Pampas, where the company mounted an I+D center and rented farms to produce soybean and corn seeds.
The team in charge of the local operation is led by Ignacio Rosasco, an agronomist linked to Asociados Don Mario since 1998 and partner in Tecnoseed, a company to provide seed services to the industry.
The head of the corn program is Daniel Novoa, the former breeder at Nidera and one of the most prestigious in the country, while the soybean program is led by Luciana Sequin, a breeder formed by the side of Adolfo Rossi, the “Father of the RR” in Argentina.
But now, the Stine management is innovating on commercial strategies, offering farmers “planted seeds”. How is it? According to the farm journalist Hector Huergo, Stine next to with two North America companies, John Deere and Nutrien (ex Agrium and ASP in Argentina) provides the farmers the soybean seed already planted and fertilized in their farms.
Nobody in the past has offered something similar. This strategic association offers a precision agriculture service, based on the “Echelon” platform that takes data from the soil and weather, analyzes it and then suggests crop management to the farmers, using, for example, variable input application.
Stine is testing corn and soybean varieties in 14 different locations in Argentina. According to the local media, they will launch its soybean varieties for the first time in the coming 2019/20 season.
