With a 70-year track record of use, are crop biologicals poised for a parabolic growth spurt? Or have sales plateaued?
According to Dunham Trimmer analysis, the global biologicals market could reach $19.6 billion by 2027. Shane Thomas of Upstream Ag Insights shares his own analysis that biological sales could equal synthetic crop protection by 2043.
So what is required for those projections to come true?
Pam Marrone, co-founder of Invasive Species Corp. and previous founder of two additional biological businesses, dove deeper into the topic with certified crop advisers during a recent webinar hosted by the Science Societies.
She points to more than a handful of drivers for biological sales growth:
- Improved grower ROI
- Soil health benefits
- Reduction of carbon dioxide
- Ramped up scientific developments for efficacy and scale
- Biodiversity
- Labor safety and flexibility
- Lower development costs and time frames (less than $5 million and three years to develop)
- No pesticide residues
- No resistance
“It’s important to keep in mind, with biologicals, their best use is in integrated programs with conventional crop chemistries,” she says. “More and more growers are seeing that when you incorporate biologicals into programs, you can get a higher return on investment. More than 70% of biologicals are used by conventional growers.”
Biologicals can be divided into three categories:
- Biopesticides, biocontrols, bioprotections ($9 billion in global sales)
- Biostimulants ($5 billion in global sales)
- Biofertilizers/bionutrients ($2.5 billion in global sales)
There are up to 80 new biological active ingredients at the EPA, so what kind of new products — or biological breakthroughs — can farmers expect?
Marrone points to peptides, proteins, pheromones, and RNA interference.
One category she’s optimistic about but with a farther out horizon is bioherbicides, with product introductions expected a few years away.
“Herbicides are a tough one for biologicals. Why are there fewer companies? Why is this harder?” she says. “Well, broad-spectrum herbicides are cheap, even though there’s a lot of weed resistance.”
She points to the need for new modes of action encouraging more work and investment.
Another front she is watching is the predictability and measurability of biological use on soil health.
“It’s going to be important to look at the intersection of crop microbiomes and soil health. Microbes and plants signal each other,” she says. “We know plants recruit microorganisms to their rhizosphere (rootzone) from the pool of microbes available in the soil. So, let’s measure how adding microorganisms to the soil can help reduce time to become regenerative.”
