INIA – La Estanzuela is located in the southwest of the crops and livestock farming region of the Country, in the Department of Colonia, on Route 50 (Km. 11) and 11 Kms. from Route 1. It is situated about 176 Kms. from the city of Montevideo and 24 Kms. from the city of Colonia del Sacramento.
Its zone of influence includes an important diversity of farm products and embraces the Departments of Colonia, Soriano, San José, Río Negro, part of Florida, Flores, Paysandú and Canelones
Founded in 1914, its first Director until 1957 was Dr. Alberto Boerger, a German plant scientist, who was hired by the Uruguayan Government with the mission of organizing a plant breeding service.
Initially, activities were related to breeding for the most relevant crops in those times: wheat, flax, barley, corn, oats and alfalfa. Because of those tasks, this new organization was named as the “Plant Breeding and Nursery National Institute”.
During that period, under the leadership of Dr. Alberto Boeger, results from its research work transcended frontiers, through which way the Institute became renowned internationally.
Since 1961, the Institute was reorganized and in its place the Agricultural Research Centre “Dr. Alberto Boerger” was created (Centro de Investigaciones Agrícolas “Dr. Alberto Boerger” - CIAAB), widening the scope of its mission to include livestock, namely cattle and sheep, with an emphasis on its pastoral basis. During that decade, La Estanzuela Experiment Station consolidates its organization and infrastructure, and develops its human resources substantially.
By the beginning of the seventies, a regionalization of the National Agricultural Research System was promoted, through the establishment of the Agricultural Experiment Stations of the North (presently INIA-Tacuarembó) and the East (INIA – Treinta y Tres), and also incorporating the Fruit- and Horticulture Experiment Stations of Las Brujas (INIA – Las Brujas) and Litoral-North (INIA – Salto Grande).
Since 1989, with the creation of the National Agricultural Research Institute (INIA), when the Law 16.065 was approved, La Estanzuela, a pillar within national research and the base for CIAAB, is incorporated to INIA under the denomination of INIA – La Estanzuela, “Dr. Alberto Boerger” Experiment Station, in honor to its first Director.
La Estanzuela Today
Objectives and Scopes
INIA-La Estanzuela activities are directed to produce and disseminate technology for the arable soils of the south and west Litoral region of Uruguay. Those activities are:
- The development of different crop-pasture rotations, tending to maximize production of each component, while preserving the sustainability of the whole system.
- The management of intensive livestock production systems (cattle and sheep), based on high quality pastures and strategic supplementation.
- Dairy farming through the development of intensive dairy production systems.
- Selection and management of forage varieties to be sown for pasture establishment, seeking high productivity, disease resistance and persistency.
- Production of basic seeds, in support of the seed certification scheme, so as to assure a high quality and sustainable supply of a wide range of crop and pasture seeds to the market.
- Activities to disseminate amongst various publics, the technologies achieved through its research work.
- To develop new varieties of crops and forages.