In May 2019, we conducted a survey across professionals working in the crop protection and nutrition sectors and 235 industry insiders responded. The responses provide valuable insights into the biggest challenges and opportunities facing the plant nutrition and crop protection industry and how it is changing as we go into 2020.
Luke Hutson, chief editor of New Ag International magazine explains:
“The world of crop protection and nutrition are in transition, with a growing role being played by existing and emerging biological products. Biocontrol remains a small percentage of the total crop protection market, but it has experienced a higher growth rate in recent years than its traditional counterpart. Consultancy DunhamTrimmer estimates an annual growth rate of 15% against that for conventional products of around 5%.
Biostimulants are now an established area of scientific research, with an increasing number of collaborations between academia and industry reflecting the increase in products on the market. With more products, there have been steady efforts to create regulatory frameworks for biostimulants in various regional markets.
Notably, at the end of 2018 in the USA, the Agriculture Improvement Act, also known as the Farm Bill, was signed into law and included a description of a plant biostimulant, providing the first statutory language regarding plant biostimulants in any law in the United States.
Respondents were asked to what extent they thought their organisation will develop their own technologies, such as Digital Farming and Artificial Intelligence. 41% answered positively that there was some chance in the future, giving an indication of the technologies that their company intended to develop in the near future. By no means all, the list included: