The cotton production system and Bt cotton in Argentina

摘要

Cotton is grown in Argentina in a broad region roughly bounded by the Tropic of Capricorn and 31 deg SL. The region is comprised of an abundant bioenvironmental diversity with climatic regions ranging from wet in the extreme northeast (over 1,500 mmof rainfall per year) to the semiarid northwest (less than 750 mm), where irrigated lands account for less than 10 percent of the national area. The distribution of cotton area by province remained relatively stable during the 1980s, the top province being Chaco (more than 65 percent), followed by Formosa (about 10 percent), Santa Fe and Santiago del Estero (8 percent each) and Corrientes (3 percent). This ranking changed in the 1990s as a result of increased cotton production in the northwestern provinces. Chaco continued to hold first place with an average of 61 percent of cotton land from 1998-2002. It was followed by Santiago del Estero (25 percent), Santa Fe (5 percent), Formosa (4 percent), Salta (3 percent) and Corrientes (2 percent). The restof the provinces account for less than 1 percent of cotton area.