Biologicals have a growing opportunity to expand the farmer’s toolbox, but producing an innovative product alone will not be enough to capture the market.
That was a key message from the recent World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit in London, where discussions suggested the sector is moving beyond treating biologicals as standalone products towards integrating them into broader crop-management programmes.
Many forecasts point to a strong opportunity for biologicals. While the mature, synthetic chemical fertiliser and pesticide markets are growing at around 3% to 5% annually, biologicals are growing nearly three times faster.
But the opportunity presented by biologicals should not be framed as biologicals versus chemistry.
The strongest takeaway from speakers was that biologicals are moving from standalone products to becoming part of the agronomic toolbox. Biocontrols, biopesticides, biofertilisers and biostimulant-type products can give farmers more options for managing risk, resilience, productivity and input efficiency, provided they work reliably and fit easily into existing agronomic programmes, speakers stressed.
“Winners won’t have the best products. Not necessarily. The winners will be those who fit better to the system,” said Manel Cervera Comabella, Managing Partner & COO at market research firm DunhamTrimmer, during the summit’s ‘Biologicals: Sizing the Market’ session.
“Biologicals, they don’t sit on a shelf. They sit in a stack that the farmer is cropping and is managing as a whole system.”
Tom Greene, who leads the external innovation investment organisation for R&D at Corteva Agriscience, echoed that message during the ‘Biologicals: The Untapped Potential’ session.
“The learning over the last decade-plus is that biologicals aren’t standalone. They really have to be integrated into a programme.”
Increasing climate volatility could strengthen that proposition.
One emerging measure of performance, Cervera Comabella suggested, is no longer simply maximising output but delivering consistent results when growing conditions become more difficult. He cautioned that revenue growth alone did not necessarily demonstrate value creation, suggesting metrics such as gross margin per hectare and repeat purchases provide more meaningful evidence of commercial success.
“Today, the new KPIs are stable, functional performance under stress,” he said.
That potentially gives biologicals an important role as growers seek more options in response to drought, heat, pest and disease pressures and volatile input markets.
Christine Gould, founder & CEO at Giga Futures, also highlighted the growing need for new solutions.
“We have built agriculture for a world that no longer exists,” she said. “The past decades focused on optimization, and now we’re seeing that we need to have optionality in the face of climate and geopolitical challenges.”
But sustainability credentials alone are unlikely to persuade farmers.
“They are not going to pay a premium for sustainability or for something being natural if it does not perform on the farm and create value,” Greene said.
Can Europe’s science translate into sales?
Regulation nevertheless remains a significant barrier to unlocking the opportunity, particularly in Europe, where European-developed biocontrols can take 10-12 years to gain approval, compared with two to three years in Brazil and the US.
Speakers argued that the region possesses world-leading biological and biocontrol research but is struggling to translate that science into products reaching farmers quickly enough.
Greene called for a more streamlined, science- and risk-based European regulatory approach for biologicals and nature-derived products, which he believes could accelerate both development and adoption.
“If Europe can move towards a science-based, risk-based regulatory system that allows biologicals, natural products and other solutions derived from nature to follow a more streamlined process, I think we will see that technology flowing and growing at a faster pace.”
