Argentine farmers face higher interest rates on bank loans during a key part of the planting season, which they say could affect world grains supply by reducing local investment in production.
Loans for prefinancing late-year sowing of soya and corn have popped 3 to 4 percentage points higher.
The trend started in early October but sped up at the start of this month, after the government adopted controls meant to halt capital flight.
"All of this works against productivity," said Ernesto Ambrosetti, chief economist at the Argentine Rural Society, which represents some of the country's biggest soya farms.
"Growers will invest more cautiously to reduce risks, meaning they will invest less," he added.
"Borrowing money to prefinance planting has become riskier today than it was before." Argentina is the world's No 1 soyameal and soyaoil exporter, as well as its third-biggest soyabean supplier.
The South American country is also a major supplier of corn and wheat.
Farmers are currently planting 2011/12 soya and corn, both of which could yield record crops.
Wheat harvesting has started in some areas of the country but begins in earnest next month.
"The increase in interest rates is coming at a bad time, when production is in full force," said Julio Curras, first vice president of the Argentine Agrarian Federation, which represents small- and medium-sized farmers.
"Today, when growers go to the bank, they can't get credit as easily as before," he said.
With its vast, fertile Pampas, Argentina is in a good position to cash in on soaring world food demand.
But it lags its neighbours in attracting private capital.
Investors fear the government's unorthodox and hard-to-predict policies may leave the country vulnerable to fallout from the slow world economy, particularly if key commodities client China has a hard landing.
Many Argentines, fearing that the government would allow a sharp depreciation of the local peso after the expected re-election of President Cristina Fernandez on October 23, began shifting from pesos to dollars starting in late September.
To convince more depositors to keep their pesos in the bank, financial institutions started offering higher interest rates.
The Badlar reference rate for large 30-day peso deposits rose from about 12 percent at the end of September to 19 percent by November 21.
This is still below consumer inflation, which is estimated at between 20 percent and 25 percent, meaning the interest rates are negative in real, or inflation-adjusted, terms.
To compensate for the higher rates paid to depositors, banks raised rates on loans tto farms and other businesses After easily winning a second term in last month's election, Fernandez cracked down on the peso-to-dollar trade through a series of controls that economists said were aimed at halting capital flight.
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