La performatividad de los bioinsumos en Argentina: disputas tecnológicas, estabilización institucional y circulación regional

Andrés Oscar Pedro  Mondaini

doi:10.48160/18517072re61.631

Authors

Andrés Oscar Pedro Mondaini Doctorando en Ciencias Sociales, Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO), Argentina. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1061-1222

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.48160/18517072re61.631

Keywords:

Bioinputs , Bioeconomy , Performativity , Agricultural Technologies

Abstract

This article analyzes the process of construction, legitimation, and institutionalization of the concept of bioinputs in Argentina from a sociotechnical and performative perspective. Based on a qualitative approach that combines semi-structured interviews, document analysis, and public policy review, the study examines how the Argentine state promoted this category as part of its bioeconomy strategy. The analysis focuses on the role of the Advisory Committee on Agricultural Bioinputs (CABUA), the Bioeconomy Promotion Program (PROFOBIO), and the regional expansion of the concept. It is argued that bioinputs operated as a performative category, reconfiguring institutional priorities, enabling new forms of state intervention, and contributing to the creation of an emerging market. However, their definition and appropriation gave rise to tensions among actors, production models, and regulatory approaches, which persist in their regional circulation. The Argentine case offers insights into how public policies not only regulate existing technologies but also produce new technological and economic categories, providing valuable lessons for rethinking other sociotechnical transitions toward sustainability.

References

Agrositio (2018), Argentina potencia el uso bioinsumos para fomentar una agricultura más sustentable. Obtenido de Agrositio (19 de Diciembre de 2018): https://www.agrositio.com.ar/noticia/201048-argentina-potencia-el-uso-bioinsumos-para-fomentar-una-agricultura-mas-sustentable.html

Aldunate, F. (2023), “El gran aporte global de América Latina ha sido el concepto de bioinsumos” (Entrevista a Frederic Goulet), Biologicals Latam, 03, pp. 49-52.

Álvarez, A. (2007), “Prólogo”, en Mayoral, M. L., Labandera, C. y J. Sanjuan, Biofertilizantes en Iberoamérica: una visión técnica, científica y empresarial, Montevideo, CYTED-BIOFAG, pp. 1-2.

Austin, J. L. (1962), How to do things with words, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press.

Bichos de Campo (2025), La cámara de agroquímicos también se subió al tren de los biológicos y hará su propio congreso: “Tenemos que achicar la brecha entre el conocimiento y la aplicación”, apuntó Federico Elorza. Obtenido (12 de Marzo de 2025) de: https://bichosdecampo.com/la-camara-de-agroquimicos-tambien-se-subio-al-tren-de-los-biologicos-y-hara-su-propio-congreso-tenemos-que-achicar-la-brecha-entre-el-conocimiento-y-la-aplicacion-apunto-federico-e/

Birch, K. (2017), “The problem of bio-concepts: biopolitics, bio-economy and the political economy of nothing”, Cultural Studies of Science Education, 12, (4), pp. 915-927. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-017-9842-0

Borup, M., Brown, N., Konrad, K., y H. Van Lente (2006), “The sociology of expectations in science and technology”, Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 18, (3–4), pp. 285–298. https://doi.org/10.1080/09537320600777002

Callon, M. (1998), “Introduction: The embeddedness of economic markets in economics”, The sociological review, 46, pp. 1-57.

Callon, M., Méadel, C., y V. Rabeharisoa (2002), “The economy of qualities”, Economy and society, 31, (2), pp. 194-217.

Chang, H. J. (2002), “Kicking away the ladder: An unofficial history of capitalism, especially in Britain and the United States”, Challenge, 45, (5), pp. 63-97.

Deciancio, M. y K. Sieguel (2022), “Creando condiciones para el desarrollo de la bioeconomía en la Argentina: El papel de las políticas estatales en biotecnología y biocombustibles (1990-2022)”, Revista Estado y Políticas Públicas, 19, pp. 225-248.

Dunlop, C. A. (2016), “Knowledge, epistemic communities, and agenda setting”, en Zahariadis, N. (ed.), Handbook of public policy agenda setting, Cheltenham, Northampton, Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 273-294. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781784715922

D'utra, G. R. (1919), Adubos verdes: sua producção e modo de emprego, Sao Paulo, Secretaria da Agricultura, Comércio e Obras Públicas do Est. de S. Paulo.

Feenberg, A. (1999), Questioning Technology, Londres, Routledge.

Geels, F. W. (2002), “Technological transitions as evolutionary reconfiguration processes: A multi-level perspective and a case-study”, Research Policy, 31, (8–9), pp. 1257–1274.

Geels, F. W. (2011), “The multi-level perspective on sustainability transitions: Responses to seven criticisms”, Environmental innovation and societal transitions, 1, (1), pp. 24-40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2011.02.002

Geels, F. W. (2019), “Socio-technical transitions to sustainability: a review of criticisms and elaborations of the Multi-Level Perspective”, Current opinion in environmental sustainability, 39, pp. 187-201. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2019.06.009

Geels, F. y J. Schot (2007), “Typology of sociotechnical transition pathways”, Research policy, 36, (3), pp. 399-417. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2007.01.003

Goulet, F. y M. Hubert (2020), “Making a place for alternative technologies: the case of agricultural bio‐inputs in Argentina”, Review of Policy Research, 37, (4), pp. 535-555. https://doi.org/10.1111/ropr.12384

Goulet, F., Poveda, D. G. y S. Odjo (2024), “As biofábricas, novos modelos de produção e acesso a insumos agrícolas na América latina”. Perspective, (64), pp. 1-4. https://doi.org/10.19182/perspective/37600

Haas, P. M. (2015), Epistemic communities, constructivism, and international environmental politics, Londres, Nueva York, Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315717906

Hughes, T. P. (1993), Networks of power: electrification in Western society, 1880-1930, Baltimore, JHU press.

Humphreys, L. (2005), “Reframing social groups, closure, and stabilization in the social construction of technology”, Social epistemology, 19, (2-3), pp. 231-253.

Jasanoff, S. (2004), States of knowledge. The co-production of science and social order, Londres, Nueva York, Routledge.

Jasanoff, S. y S. H. Kim (2015), Dreamscapes of Modernity, Londres, The University of Chicago Press.

Kjellberg, H. y C.F. Helgesson (2007), O”n the nature of markets and their practices”, Marketing theory, 7, (2), pp. 137-162. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470593107076862

Köhler, J., Geels, F. W., Kern, F., Markard, J., Onsongo, E. y A. Wieczorek (2019), “An agenda for sustainability transitions research: State of the art and future directions”, Environmental innovation and societal transitions, 31, pp. 1-32.

Konrad, K., Van Lente, H., Groves, C. y C. Selin (2016), “Performing and Governing the Future in Science and Technology”, en U. Felt, R. Fouché, C. Miller, y L. Smith-Doerr, The handbook of science and technology studies, Cambridge, Massachussets, The MIT Press, pp. 465-493.

Kuhlmann, S. y A. Rip (2018), “Next-generation innovation policy and grand challenges”, Science and public policy, 45, (4), pp. 448-454. https://doi.org/10.1093/scipol/scy011

Labandera, C. y A. Arias (2011), “Prólogo”, en ALAR-RELAR, XXV Reunión Latinoamericana de Rizobiología-I Congreso Nacional de Microorganismos Promotores del Crecimiento Vegetal-50 años de investigación en inoculantes como estrategia de desarrollo sostenible (1960-2011). Piriápolis: ALAR-RELAR.

Lema, M. (2012), “Agrobiotecnología en la Argentina. Una nueva etapa”, Alimentos Argentinos, (55), pp. 4-11.

Levidow, L. (2018), “Sustainable intensification: Agroecological appropriation or contestation?”, En Constance, D. H., Konefal, J. y M. Hatanaka, Contested sustainability discourses in the agrifood system, Nueva York, Routledge, pp. 19-41. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315161297-2

MacKenzie, D. (2006), “Is economics performative? Option theory and the construction of derivatives markets”, Journal of the history of economic thought, 28, (1), pp. 29-55.

Markard, J. (2018), “The next phase of the energy transition and its implications for research and policy”, Nature Energy, 3, (8), pp. 628-633. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-018-0171-7

Merluzzi, E. (2013), Taller sobre institucionalidad para el desarrollo, regulación y comercialización de bioinsumos en Argentina. Experiencias en países de América Latina y el Caribe. COMUNICáNDONOS. Boletín digital de extensión. Facultad de Agronomía y Ciencias Alimentarias. Universidad de Morón, septiembre de 2013.

Mondaini, A. (2025), “Orígenes, genealogía y expansión de la concepción actual de bioeconomía en América Latina y el Caribe”, Naturaleza y Sociedad, (13), pp. 54-80.

Montañez, A. L. y L. Solari, (2003), “Nitrogen fixation on a national scale”, International Journal for Low-External-Input and Sustainable Agriculture (LEISA), 19, p. 9.

Muniesa, F. (2014), The provoked economy: Economic reality and the performative turn, Nueva York, Routledge.

Papachristos, G., Sofianos, A. y E. Adamides (2013), “System interactions in socio-technical transitions: Extending the multi-level perspective”, Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 7, pp. 53-69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2013.03.002

Penna, C. C. y F.F. Geels (2015), “Climate change and the slow reorientation of the American car industry (1979–2012): An application and extension of the Dialectic Issue LifeCycle (DILC) model”, Research Policy, 44, (5), pp. 1029-1048.

Pinch, T. J. y W. E. Bijker (1987), “The social construction of facts and artifacts: Or how the sociology of science and the sociology of technology might benefit each other”, en Bijker, W. E., Hugues, T. P. y T. Pinch, The social constructions of technological systems: New directions in the Sociology and History of Technology, Cambridge, MA, The MIT Press, pp. 11-45.

Robertson, R. (1995), “Glocalization: Time-space and homogeneity-heterogeneity”, en Featherstone, M., Lash, S. y R. Robertson, Global Modernities, Londres, SAGE Publications, pp. 25-44.

Rocha, P., C. P., Buzzetti, G., Lacaze, G. y T. Krotsh (2013), Propuesta para la construcción de una política para el desarrollo de la industria de bioinsumos en Argentina, San José de Costa Rica, IICA.

Rodríguez Navarro, D., Sanjuán Pinilla, J. y A. Lagares, A. (2018), “Uso de la biodiversidad regional para el desarrollo e implementación de prácticas sustentables de biofertilización en cultivos de importancia agroalimentaria en Iberoamérica”, SEM@foro, 66, pp. 20-21.

Rodríguez, A., Mondaini, A. y M. Hitschfeld (2017), Bioeconomía en América Latina y el Caribe. Contexto global y regional y perspectiva, Santiago de Chile, CEPAL.

Rosenbloom, D. (2020), “Engaging with multi-system interactions in sustainability transitions: A comment on the transitions research agenda”, Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 34, pp. 336-340.

Schiel, E. y P. Marca (1942), “Influencia de la infección de soja con Rhizobium japonicum, sobre el rendimiento y la calidad del forraje”, Revista Argentina de Agronomía, 9, (4), pp. 284-91.

Smith, A. y R. Raven (2012), “What is protective space? Reconsidering niches in transitions to sustainability”, Research policy, 41, (6), pp. 1025-1036.

Starobinsky, G., Monzón, J., di Marzo Broggi, E. y H. Braude (2021), “Bioinsumos para la agricultura que demandan esfuerzos de investigación y desarrollo Capacidades existentes y estrategia de política pública para impulsar su desarrollo en Argentina”, Documentos de Trabajo del CCE N° 17, Consejo para el Cambio Estructural - Ministerio de Desarrollo Productivo de la Nación.

Trigo, E. y G. Henry, G. (2011), “Una bioeconomía para América Latina y el Caribe: oportunidades y retos desde una perspectiva de políticas”, Nota de Política sobre Bioeconomía, 2011-01, pp. 1-5.

Turnheim, B. S. (2020), “Forever stuck in old ways? Pluralising incumbencies in sustainability transitions”, Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 35, pp. 180-184.

Whelan, A. (2014), “Bioinsumos, un giro hacia la sustentabilidad”, Alimentos Argentinos, (59), pp. 12-19.

Whelan, A. (2014), “Bioinsumos, tiempo de adultez. Tres jornadas de debate”, Alimentos Argentinos, (60), pp. 44-54.