**3.1 Argentina**

480 Soybean Physiology and Biochemistry

(4a)

0.6% 2.0% 7.0% 18.0% 42.0% 78.5%

(4b)

2.4% 15.2% 25.9% 40.5% 66.6%

Fig. 4. Two diagrammatic scales of Asian soybean rust severity with percentage that

represents the area of disease contamination.

The soybean crop has been converted from the middle of the nineties in the main seasonal crop of Argentina, both in area planted and in its total production (CAS, 2008). During 2004/05 season, the area devoted to soybeans was 14.4 million hectares (51% of the total planted with cereals and oilseeds), producing 38 million tones. In the season 2005/06, the soybean planting grew up to 15 and 15.3 million hectares (PNR, 2011a). In the 2006/07 season, reached a volume of 47.5 million tonnes, representing 50% of total the country grain production estimated at 94.4 million tones (CAS, 2008).

The Asian soybean rust first appeared in Argentina at the end of the 2001/02 season, in a test group in the town of Alem, province of Misiones. The infected plants samples were sent to the United States for identification by molecular analysis techniques and confirmed that the pathogen *P. pachyrhizi* was present. This finding coincided with the species identified in Brazil and Paraguay (Begenisic et al., 2004).

In the following season (2002/03), the soybean rust was detected at the end of the cycle, by a group of technicians from "Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria – INTA" (National Institute of Agricultural Technology) in test samples from the town of Cerro Azul, province of Misiones and two commercial lots located in the town of Gobernador Virasoro, in the province of Corrientes. Although this pathogen has penetrated the national territory, it was far from the main producing areas of the country. Because of the history of the disease, there were high producers and technicians concern about the losses that could result in the coming years (Begenisic et al., 2004).

As a result, at the beginning of the 2003/04 season, bearing in mind that rust had caused heavy losses in neighboring countries and displaying that it could become a serious concerns for Argentina, despite until that moment the rust had a little history in the country, the Ministry of Agriculture launched the "Programa Nacional de Roya de la Soja – PNRS" (National Program for Soybean Rust), coordinating activities with various agencies and public and private institutions in order to minimize the possible impact of the disease in the country (PNRS, 2011a).

The implementation of the PNRS was the first opportunity in which all public institutions have joined forces, in a cooperative manner, carrying out activities in a coordinated way and contributing in those components of the program according to their specific duties incumbent on each institution (PNRS, 2011a).

During crop season of 2004/05, the disease was detected in 13 provinces, including provinces witch the disease was detected for the first time, representing the advance of the disease significantly when compared with the last season. In most of the contaminated provinces, the rust did not cause economic losses due to its late appearance in the crop, with the exception of the province of Entre Rios where the disease was much more severe, reporting significant yield losses up to 30% (PNRS, 2011b).

These low levels of contamination can be explained for (PNRS, 2011b):


• The high level of adoption of fungicide use in Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia.

The fungicides recommended by Argentina are the strobilurin, triazoles and their mixtures. The decision to apply is at the first signs and/or when was possible to anticipated the diagnosis in the field or when they are found in areas close to their lots and recorded favorable environmental conditions to ensure at least 7-10 hours of wet leaf and average temperatures of 22°C.

The Argentina has an official monitoring system that allow to analyze a large number of samples for the detection and disease monitoring through the website "www.sinavimo.gov.ar" (in Espanish).
