Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA) was established in 1956, based on a network of experimental stations, covering the whole of the country. At present there are 15 regional centres, 42 experimental stations and 116 extension agencies. The investigations concern the different categories of crops or specific activities (cereals, fruit and horticultural crops, meat, etc.).
Twenty-eight national universities provide agronomic education in the different regions of the country. There is cooperation between INTA, the university faculties of agriculture and certain institutes of the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET).
Towards the end of the 1980s, the Programa Suelos y el Proyecto Agricultura Conservacionista, among other INTA initiatives, drew attention to the indiscriminate exploitation of plant nutrients. These initiatives resulted in the ‘FERTILIZAR’ project that is financed by enterprises involved in the fertilizer market.
The large amount of technical information generated by INTA and other institutions was not reaching most producers. FERTILIZAR has used various means to make this information known to producers. FERTILIZAR’s efforts were supported by favourable economic conditions, especially during the period of high cereal prices in the mid-1990s.
