Dinámica de la agricultura en el Uruguay y su evolución en el periodo 2015 – 2023

The absence of reliable information on crop yields and sown area at subnational level represents a limitation for analyzing agricultural dynamics in Uruguay and for estimating yield gaps. Official agricultural statistics are reported almost exclusively at the national scale, without reflecting the spatial heterogeneity that characterizes the country’s production systems. In response to this limitation, the aim of this study was to generate, for the first time, departmental-level maps of sown area and yield for soybean (first season, second season, and irrigated), maize (first season, second season, and irrigated), wheat, barley and brassicas for the period 2015–2023, using an unprecedented dataset of more than 10.000 producer-level records from DIEA’s Agricultural Surveys, fully processed and systematized in RStudio.

A consolidated and standardized database was developed from the Winter and Spring Surveys, followed by a cross-validation process using national and international official sources to evaluate the consistency of the estimates. The resulting maps provide a detailed visualization of the spatial distribution of agricultural productivity and sown area across the country. Additionally, temporal trends in total agricultural area and crop-specific yield trajectories were analyzed to identify structural changes over the study period.

Results show that, although Uruguay’s total agricultural area remained relatively stable, the production system experienced significant transformations: an increase in double-cropping, greater diversification, and a marked expansion of second-season maize and brassicas. Soybean remained the dominant crop, with more than half of the sown area concentrated in the western departments (Soriano, Río Negro and Colonia), which also exhibited the highest yields and lowest interannual variability. For maize, irrigated systems showed clear advantages in both yield and stability, positioning irrigation as a key strategy for coping with climatic variability.