By:

• Dr. Ricardo Melgar, Estación Experimental de Pergamino, Buenos Aires Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA), Argentina
• Dr. Godofredo Vitti, Escuela Superior de Agricultura "Luiz Queiroz", Universidad de São Paulo, SP, Brasil
• Dr. Vinicius de Melo Benites, Centro Nacional de Investigación de Suelos, Río Verde, GO, Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuaria, EMBRAPA, Brasil.

The first edition of the IPI Crop Bulletin on Soya, written by Dr. Fauconnier, was published in 1986. Since this time, the area and productivity of soybean has dramatically increased, with Latin America producers playing a much more important role than before. The authors of this latest IPI publication in Spanish, Dr. R. Melgar (Argentina) and Drs. Vitti and de Melo Benites (Brazil), are well connected to this remarkable growth in their countries, and are well placed to outline soybean development in Latin America.

The publication includes four chapters, conclusions and color photos. In the opening chapter, the authors describe the economic importance of Soya in Latin America, including the development of the biofuel industry that uses soybean oil. The second chapter describes the general conditions required for the crop, climate, soils and potential across the Latin American region. In the third chapter, the role of each nutrient on the development and quality of the crop is outlined, and in the fourth chapter the various fertilization practices used in soybean production are discussed in detail, with a special focus on those applied in no-till systems.

Each chapter is accompanied by tables and figures, as well as color photos describing typical nutrient deficiencies which appear as an appendix. The book will be a useful resource for those involved in Soya research and production, including academia, agribusiness and agronomy communities in Spanish-speaking countries.

For copies of the bulletin, please contact Dr. R. Melgar at rjrmelgar@gmail.com or rmelgar@pergamino.inta.gov.ar.