I agree to receive INTA News

Remove me from the mailing list
Former issues

In this number

Pro-Huerta Program Expanding in Latin America

Project: Promoting Fresh Foodstuff Self-Production in Haiti.

Publications

Institutionals

Courses & Seminars

Contact us

INTA News

Meteorological radar started up by INTA

Will be operated together with the Argentine National Meteorological Service.

Argentina is free from Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies(TSE)

INTA participates in the bovine and ovine surveillance program.

Pro-Huerta Program Expanding in Latin America

Within the framework of the International Cooperation Initiative for Haiti, the Argentine Republic presented, at the Cayena Conference held in March, the Pro-Huerta Fresh Foodstuff Self-Production Project as an open proposal for triangular cooperation. The project is developed by the Argentine Horizontal Cooperation Fund (Fondo Argentino de Cooperación Horizontal - FO-AR) in partnership with the Argentine Social Development Ministry (PNSA-MDS) and INTA.

Our country cooperates in this project because of the excellent results shown by the Pro-Huerta Program, which has been implemented by the Social Development Department and INTA during the last 15 years in Argentina. Since it was established, the Pro-Huerta Program has improved the nutritional status of 3,500,000 poor people through more than 500,000 family, 7,000 school and 8,000 community gardens.

The initiative is aimed at reducing the serious nutritional problems affecting Haiti, where 47% of the population is malnourished as a result of the country’s difficult political-social situation, worsened by the natural disasters of 2004. For the Project preparation and implementation, work meetings were held with authorities from the Government of Haiti, IICA Haiti, other international agencies, and local organizations.

To date, 84 promoters have been trained, two demo gardens and 478 family gardens have been established in the city of Gonaives and in the towns of Debaryere, Poteaux and Bassin, located in the Artibonite District.

For further information: prohuertasec@correo.inta.gov.ar, prohuertasec1@correo.inta.gov.ar

Back to top

Different extreme weather phenomena occurred in the world lately, which have caused a large number of victims and serious material damages. Argentina has alternatively experienced droughts, floods, storms, hails and frosts which have very seriously affected the farming and livestock production in broad areas of the Pampas Region.

After three years of work, the meteorological radar was started up at INTA Pergamino in the province of Buenos Aires. This equipment, which required an investment of US$ 1 million by INTA, is a sphere that weighs 7000 kg rotates permanently on a 35-meter-high tower. Its state-of-the-art technology makes it possible to obtain meteorological information for supervising and monitoring the weather in an area of a 400 km-radius as well as rainfall data in small areas —as from 100 hectares.

This information will enable the creation of a monitoring system integrated with meteorological stations and satellites, which will optimize agricultural weather forecasts and will make it possible to provide early warnings about potentially risky meteorological events. The new radar is jointly operated by INTA Pergamino, the Climate and Water Institute (Instituto de Clima y Agua —INTA Castelar), province of Buenos Aires— and the National Meteorological Service (Servicio Meteorológico Nacional - SMN) which reports to the Argentine Air Force.

Back to top

TSE diseases, such as the “mad-cow disease”, affect the nervous system of bovines, ovines and humans. It is for this reason that they cause great concern worldwide. In Argentina, the National Agrifood Health and Quality Service (SENASA) carries out an epidemiological surveillance program with the participation of the eleven INTA’s Animal Health groups and the Virology and Pathobiology Institutes of the National Farming and Livestock Research Center (Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Agropecuarias), INTA Castelar, province of Buenos Aires, where the National Reference Laboratory for these diseases is located.

Each of INTA’s Animal Health groups receives queries about ovine and bovine cases of neurological symptoms, carries out differential diagnoses and sends samples to the National Reference Laboratory. At this Lab, TSE diagnosis tests through microscopy, immunohistochemistry, Western Blot and other rapid tests are carried out to identify prions. The Program of Neurological Diseases of INTA processes approximately 200 samples of the approximately 4,000 a year analyzed by the TSE Prevention Program. The results rule out the possibility of there being TSE cases in our country. This work is completed by diffusion and training activities for private veterinarians.

Back to top

COECO Cooperativa Granjera Entrerriana Limitada is formed by poultry small farmers that use personal or family labor in productive units within a range of 90 km approximately in the District of Colón, in the province of Entre Ríos.

This cooperative venture produces INTA “country chickens” under field grazing conditions, according to European animal welfare standards and within a Production Good Practice Program. The system combines the manual traditional production method with a strict standardized production method. Under these conditions, when birds are 80 days, they reach a minimum weight of 3.5 kg, with very lean and quality poultry meat having the organoleptic features required by consumers in the Northern Hemisphere.

With the support of Fundación Fortalecer-Proyecto BID and the Centro de Desarrollo PyMES (S&MEs Development Center) of Entre Ríos, COECO is currently conducting an international poultry market survey and has planned to build its own slaughter house and a cold packing plant especially oriented to exports. On INTA’s side, this project is coordinated by the Farming and Livestock Quality Management Area of the Assistant National Operations Direction (CGCA-DNAOP) and the Poultry Research Group of INTA Pergamino, province of Buenos Aires.

Back to top

This publication by Celia Benítez, Héctor Castro, Alejandra Ricca and Sergio Vaudagna, addresses the following subjects: ecological or environmental and agrotechnical factors, harvest conditions, conditioning, packaging, storage, transport and commercialization. It includes an Annex with information processed since 1965, with flowering dates and the harvest calendar of the main pear and apple varieties grown in the north of the Patagonia Region.

Publication price: $35.

For further information: Librería del INTA (INTA’s Bookstore), Chile 460, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, 0054 11 4339-0602, libreria@correo.inta.gov.ar

Back to top

Rural Development in Spain
With the aim of developing new participation techniques that improve rapid rural diagnoses (RRD), Oscar García and Rubén Álvarez, engineers from the North Buenos Aires Regional Center, participated in a training session presented by Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain.
Information: Ing. Oscar García, mailto:ogarcia@pergamino.inta.gov.ar

“El Gauchito” National Award to Farming and Livestock Merit
The “El Gauchito” National and International Award to Farming and Livestock Merit ceremony was held at the Federacion Economica de Tucumán. This year the award had 171 registered participants, 16 being from Chile and Uruguay, and 16 from Argentine provinces and Buenos Aires City. Participants on INTA’s side were: Prozono, Procadis, Proapi and a fruit and vegetable production project of INTA Jesús María in the province of Córdoba.
Information: 0054 03492 427597/9438, mailto:gauchito@elgauchito.org.ar

International Symposium in China: a professional from INTA invited
Recently, the International Symposium on Eucalyptus Plantations: the challenge in developing solid wood products, was carried in China. Forestal Engineer Martín Sánchez Acosta, from INTA Concordia, province of Entre Ríos, was invited to be a member of the international technical committee and to speak about technology and his experience in the use of eucalyptus for solid wood products in South America.
Information: Lic. Ivana Maldonado, Comunicaciones INTA Concordia, province of Entre Ríos, imaldonado@concordia.com.ar

Back to top

The information enclosed in this bulletin is originated in different INTA Units and prepared by Javier Bellati, Jorge Conti, Mariana Magistocchi and Giselle Miquet. INTA Communications Department.

Chile 460 2nd floor, Buenos Aires City. Phone: 00 54 11 43390600.

Contact us: 0800@correo.inta.gov.ar

Translated by Monica Lopez de Shinzato
Certified Translator (Argentina - CTPCBA No. 3668)

Back to top