A new narrative about the countryside: less prejudice, more innovation and a strategic vision of development

While the field incorporates artificial intelligence, biotechnology, precision agriculture, digital platforms and predictive models based on millions of data, much of the public debate continue trapped in categories typical of the last century: agriculture as a simple supplier of raw materials, generator of extraordinary income or expression of a primary economic model that the country should overcome.

The time has come to ask ourselves if The problem is in agriculture or in the way we think about Argentine development.

The world changes at an unprecedented speed. The global population will continue to grow, millions of people will access better income levels and the demand for food, renewable energy, biomaterials and solutions based on biological resources will increase, which will have to be produced with less land available per inhabitant, under increasing environmental restrictions and in a context of climate change.

The answer to these challenges will not come from the agriculture of the past. It will come from a knowledge-intensive agriculture.

The true revolution that occurs in the countryside is not the expansion of the planted area. It is the massive incorporation of science and technology. Sensors that monitor crops in real time. Algorithms that optimize the use of fertilizers. Biotechnology that improves resistance to drought and diseases. Digital systems that measure environmental footprints and respond to the growing demands of international markets.

Agriculture long ago ceased to be an activity based exclusively on natural resources.. It will continue to be a open-air factory, but based on technological capabilities. Argentina is no stranger to this transformation. Quite the opposite.

More than 90% of extensive agriculture is developed under direct sowing, one of the most widespread management systems worldwide. Biotechnology adoption is among the highest on the planet. There is a dynamic agtech ecosystem, with startups that develop exportable solutions. Universities, public organizations and private companies They actively participate in innovation processes that are observed internationally. However, We continue to act as if agriculture were a residual and not very dynamic sector of an economy that should find its destiny elsewhere.

The problem is not only semantic. The narratives condition public policies. They influence budget prioritiesregulatory stability and investment decisions. No country builds a sustainable development strategy on the basis of permanently distrust one of its most dynamic sectors.

It is as if in the Albiceleste team, regarding the Soccer World Cup, we doubted the team itself. Lionel Messi or the virtues of DT, Lionel Scaloni.

This It does not mean idealizing agriculture or ignoring pending challenges. The environmental sustainability represents a growing demand from society and markets. They persist territorial gaps important. Logistics remain expensive. There are infrastructure and logistics deficits, financing and international insertion. And the country needs to move towards higher levels of value addition. But precisely in this lies the chance.

The bioeconomy offers the possibility of expanding the traditional view of agricultural production. Already It is not just about producing grains or meat. It is about using biomass, knowledge and technology to generate bioplastics, biomaterials, bioenergy, biomolecules and a new generation of sustainable industrial products.

In a world seeking to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels, the ability to produce on a biological basis can become an extraordinary strategic advantage.

And there is another aspect that usually goes unnoticed after decades of a strong process of urban concentration in the search for better salaries. The bioeconomy opens the possibility of partially reversing this trend through new productive investments distributed territorially. Future bio-refineries will not be in large capitals. Biomass – its main input – “travels poorly” – so its location will be close to where it is produced. This means new investments and qualified jobs in intermediate cities and rural territories, technological services, logistics, applied research. New ventures will energize regional economies that for years faced processes of stagnation or population loss.

This requires intelligent public policies. More investment in science and technology. Institutions capable of articulating the public and private sectors. Predictable regulatory frameworks that interpret the unmistakable signs of new scenarios. Physical and digital infrastructure. International insertion strategies compatible with the new environmental and commercial requirements.

And, above all, it will require abandoning a sterile discussion that confronts production and development as if they were incompatible objectives. The successful countries They do not build prosperity by denying their competitive advantages. They enhance them through knowledge, innovation and appropriate institutions.

Australia He did that with his mining. Denmark with agri-food production. Finland with its forest resources. Brazil with tropical agriculture.

Argentina should ask itself why it is so difficult for it to do so with one of the sectors where it already has Demonstrated capabilities on a global scale. The real discussion should not be whether agriculture is important for the country. That answer has been settled for a long time. The relevant question is another: Do we want to continue seeing the countryside as the sector that generates the foreign exchange we need to solve the emergencies of the present or are we willing to recognize it as one of the main platforms to build the development of the future?

Agriculture of the 21st century It’s not just agriculture. It’s science. It’s technology. It is bioeconomy. It is territorial innovation. And it can become a centerpiece of a national strategy oriented to sustainable growth and the realization of opportunities.

Argentina needs a new narrative about agriculture. Not to hide his problems or to idealize him. But to understand that the development of the 21st century is likely to look much less like the images of the past and much more like the convergence between biology, digitalization and sustainability.

The opportunity is in front of us. The unforgivable risk is to continue discussing the future with the categories of the past.