Sunflower is regaining prominence across the country, and Córdoba is one of the territories that serves as a clear example.
After being relegated for more than two decades by the expansion of soybean and corn, the crop is reappearing in farmers’ production plans, driven mainly by an economic equation that, in certain environments, can prove more attractive.
The phenomenon was reflected during the International Corn Congress (CIM), held in Córdoba Capital, where the oilseed was an “invited guest” that captured attention.
However, its return poses a particular challenge: a large share of the producers now considering incorporating it again have no recent experience with its management.
The new keys to sunflower
“The producers who want to sow it again realize they didn’t have the information; maybe their fathers had it, but because it hadn’t been sown for more than 20 years, the hybrids and management practices have changed so much that they didn’t know how to include it in their fields today,” explained Francisco “Paco” Pérez Brea, a specialist from NK Semillas.
The current agronomic scenario is very different from that era. No-till has replaced a large part of conventional tillage systems, while genetics, weed-control tools, and knowledge of the crop’s behavior have also evolved.
“At that time Clearfield sunflower hybrids didn’t even exist; they were conventional hybrids. Today there is Clearfield technology, so you have to evaluate how the application of imidazolinones fits into the rotation,” Pérez Brea told Infocampo.
Therefore, incorporating sunflower into current systems does not simply mean recovering a recipe from the past. Hybrid choice, sowing date, plant density, and fertilization strategy must be analyzed according to each environment and the rotation.
In this regard, work with local groups and producer networks has made it possible to update a large part of the available information on the crop in the different productive regions of Córdoba.
Compared with corn, sunflower also presents a management dynamic that can be relatively straightforward. Although there are insects that can affect the crop, such as various caterpillar species, genetic improvement has allowed considerable progress in health and agronomic performance.
For Pérez Brea, one of the keys is “choosing the right hybrid and the appropriate sowing date,” especially in environments where the crop can achieve significant vegetative development thanks to water availability.
Traits such as lodging tolerance and the material’s adaptation to the environment also become relevant. In other words, the crop’s potential does not depend solely on its maximum yield, but on its ability to sustain it under the particular conditions of each field.
Added to this is a tool that was practically unavailable two decades ago: the possibility of working with large volumes of agronomic information and making increasingly specific decisions for each environment.
Sunflower: numbers that work in its favor
The economic aspect is one of the main drivers behind sunflower’s return. An analysis by NK Semillas found that, in fields where soybean yields less than 32 quintals per hectare, sunflower can be more competitive from a profitability standpoint.
The figure is significant because it is not simply a matter of comparing the yield potential of both crops, but of determining which of them allows better use of each environment.
Thus, sunflower is reappearing as an alternative for diversifying agricultural systems and improving the economic stability of production, especially in fields where soybean loses competitiveness.
But the challenge for the chain does not end there. Genetics will need to continue accompanying this process so that the crop can maintain its competitiveness against alternatives that are also advancing rapidly in yield and adaptation.
“The big challenge we have now is to maintain all the gains we achieved in health and disease management, while at the same time continuing to add yield to give it competitiveness against a corn crop that has systematic genetic improvement,” Pérez Brea stated.
In short, the return of sunflower to Córdoba shows that recovering a crop does not necessarily mean producing it the same way as 20 years ago.
Genetics have changed, Clearfield technology has appeared, no-till has become established, and today there is a data-analysis capacity that allows decisions to be fine-tuned to each environment. This entire technological package changes the rules of the game for a crop that producers know, but that they must now learn to manage again.
In this context, sunflower is once again gaining ground not only as an alternative to soybean, but also as a tool to diversify rotations and take advantage of environments where its productive equation can be favorable.
The challenge will be to turn this renewed interest into sustained growth of the crop, supported by better hybrids, agronomic information, and increasingly precise management decisions.