ABSTRACT
In contrast to the importance of the mountain environment to the Andean group of countries, the high, but relatively narrow, range of the Andes separating Chile and Argentina is almost uninhabited. The tropical and subtropical forest of the region is in northern Argentina and Paraguay, and there is temperate forest in the south of Chile. There is no distinct line between the extensive area of natural pasture and desert in southern and western Argentina, but the best grazing land is mixed with the large area of cultivation in the pampa region of Argentina and neighbouring Uruguay. Argentina and Uruguay have often been compared with Australia and New Zealand, but climatically and in the fertility of its soils, the pampa of Argentina is more favoured than its counterpart in the interior of New South Wales. Argentina has not yet made much use of chemical fertilisers, nor researched as extensively as Australia in crop and trace element improvements. In Table 10.4 wheat yields are compared in six of the world’s leading wheat-growing countries.
