PUBLIC TALK: Agricultural changes in the Argentinean Pampas

A public lecture by Gustavo Striker, Assistant Professor, University of Buenos Aires.

For 100 to 120 years, agriculture in the Pampas traditionally consisted of a sequence of arable crops alternated with sown pastures for livestock production. However, during the last two-to-three decades, the cropping model has changed dramatically. The economic context being more favourable for crop than livestock production has triggered the increase in cropping area and provoked the displacement of grazing-related activities to marginal-hostile areas. The increased area and yields of crops has benefited farm incomes. However, new challenging problems have emerged: (i) the appearance of weed species with increasing tolerance to herbicides given their successive application, and (ii) the need to identify new (or improve current) forage species with increasing ability to tolerate more stressful soil conditions (e.g. waterlogging, salinity) of marginal lands increasingly relied upon for forage production for livestock. This public lecture will address the question of what are we doing to solve these new problems.

Cost: Free, but RSVP required via the webpage.