Argentina Rains Help Pump Up Soybean, Corn Crop Forecasts

Mar 03, 2021

Abundant rains in recent weeks in Argentina have lifted forecasts for soybean and corn harvests, according to a revised outlook by the Rosario grains exchange, a major boost for the grains producer amid a global food price rally.

The exchange raised its forecast for the 2020/21 soybean harvest to 49 million tonnes, versus 47 million previously, and for corn to 48.5 million tonnes from 46 million earlier, when dry conditions had raised concerns over crops.

The exchange said in the monthly report sent to Reuters early on Thursday that the rains in recent weeks had been a "turning point" in the season and banished any fears about a repeat of the 2018 drought that caused heavy crop losses.

"The specter of the 2018 productive disaster remains behind us," the exchange said in the report.

Argentina is the world's top exporter of soybean oil and meal, and the third largest of corn, but lower rainfall in recent months due to a moderate La Niña weather phenomenon had caused uncertainty over harvests from the country.

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Video: New research chair appointed to accelerate crop variety development

Funded by Sask Wheat, the Wheat Pre-Breeding Chair position was established to enhance cereal research breeding and training activities in the USask Crop Development Centre (CDC) by accelerating variety development through applied genomics and pre-breeding strategies.

“As the research chair, Dr. Valentyna Klymiuk will design and deploy leading-edge strategies and technologies to assess genetic diversity for delivery into new crop varieties that will benefit Saskatchewan producers and the agricultural industry,” said Dr. Angela Bedard-Haughn (PhD), dean of the College of Agriculture and Bioresources at USask. “We are grateful to Sask Wheat for investing in USask research as we work to develop the innovative products that strengthen global food security.”

With a primary focus on wheat, Klymiuk’s research will connect discovery research, gene bank exploration, genomics, and breeding to translate gene discovery into improved varieties for Saskatchewan’s growing conditions.