Plant-eating pest found in Argentina, yield could fall: agency

New Delhi — Soybean stem fly, an invasive plant-eating pest, has been found in Argentina's top soy producing state -- Santa Fe, which could potentially reduce the yield, according to a report by Argentina's national agro research agency.

The pest could damage soybean crops in Argentina, which is currently in reproductive stage -- the most vulnerable time.

Soybean stem fly could be a bigger concern for second crop soybeans as well, which comprise over 30% of total Argentinian soy output, market sources said.

The pest, which is very hard to detect, has been discovered for the first time in Argentina, the agency said.

Its origin can be traced back to Asia, before it spread to Russia, Australia and Spain.

In recent years, its presence was confirmed in Brazil and Paraguay, the report released on Tuesday said.

The pest attack on Argentinian soybeans comes at a time when farmers are already battling production issues with drought (since late February) hurting soybean productivity in 2019-20 crop year (November - October).

Soybean output for Argentina -- the world's third largest soy producer and exporter -- is forecast to be at 52 million mt, down 4.6% on February estimates and 6% year on year, in 2019-20 crop year (November-October), on drought conditions in Cordoba and Santa Fe, a Buenos Aires Grains Exchange, or BAGE, report said last week.

Of the projected planted area of 17.4 million hectares for the 2019-20, only 39% of the soybean crops were in good to excellent conditions in primary soy producing regions, BAGE said.

The country's second crop soybeans suffered irreversible damage of up to 80% in primary regions owing to drought conditions for the past few weeks, the trade association Rosario Board of Trade said last week.

While, areas such as San Martin are expected to have only 10% damage to the second soybeans, areas like Bigand have 30-80% crop damage, BCR added.

In Argentina, first crop soybeans are planted in late October, while the second crop beans are planted in late November, immediately after the wheat harvest.

Soybean crop requires sufficient amount of rain during the sowing phase.

However, dry weather conditions during October 2019 delayed the sowing of first crop beans in the country by two weeks. As a result, both first and second crop Argentinian beans are currently vulnerable to weather extremes and pest attacks.

According to the market sources, since the Soybean stem fly is a new pest for Argentinian soy farmers, the severity of its impact is still uncertain.

Lack of pesticides for this stealthy bug is also not helping the matter.

The effect of this bug will continue to be investigated on late-planted soybean crops and the results of these studies will be available in coming months, the national agency said.

The crop disease could severely impact Argentinian soybean crop quality, which lags behind US and Brazilian origins in terms of protein count, sources said.

China – world's top soy buyer -- generally prefers Brazilian and US origins over lower-priced Argentinian beans because of their superior protein count.

Protein count is an important parameter for Chinese soy buyers as the country processes over 80% of imported raw soybeans into protein-rich animal feed, to meet its burgeoning domestic meat consumption.