The views expressed in this Member News article are the author's own and do not necessarily represent those of Agri-TechE.
Why Should It Matter?
To solve our climate challenge and protect nature we must embrace, transform, and accelerate innovation in agriculture.
As one of the largest greenhouse gas-emitting sectors of the global economy, with inorganic fertilisers accounting for 18% of ammonia pollution and agriculture responsible for 87% of nitrous oxide emissions, efforts to embrace biostimulant technology and solutions in our global food systems need to be at the heart of change.
To reach our goals we must close the technology gap in agriculture, with new technologies and methods of producing food that protect nature.
How Can We Make A Difference?
Biostimulants and sustainable farming are amazing and benefit everyone from manufacturers to consumers.
We need to move the grower’s mindset to embrace biostimulant advancement as an essential part of their program, needed to achieve world climate goals, crop quality, and ROI outcomes consistently with evidence of efficacy.
Europe is the current leader in the consumption of Biostimulants, sitting at 38%, whilst the US and Canada are at 13% consumption and the Middle East and Africa at 3% with high potential to increase in the Biostimulants sector to increase their quality and yield of their produce.
Global Bio-Stimulants Market
Europe – 38%
Asia – 28%
Latin America – 20%
US & Canada – 13%
Middle East & Africa – 3%
Protect And Nurture
People want to know the food they are eating is safe, and that the production of it is not harming the environment.
It’s got to be affordable; the scales of the economy need to be high to meet affordability.
Supermarkets are starting to enforce residue levels, pesticides, and other elements, which is not the answer to a sustainable and green future.
For the industry to embrace, improve, and grow it needs an industry body that can create greater awareness and understanding.
Embracing Bio-Stimulants
An example of how we can improve the industry can be seen with our CROP+ bio-stimulant which was successfully trialled with yellow kiwi (Variety G3):
The trial period was 21 days. Results were compared to non-treated crops.
The 21-day duration of the trial was conducted through a heatwave.
Fruit drop was successfully reduced by 14.5%, which was compared to untreated crops in the same trial.
Yield was increased by 6.3 Tonnes per Hectare when compared to the untreated crop in the trial.
The marketable fruit was increased by 7.6% when compared to the untreated crops.
Overcoming Abiotic stress
Furthermore, testing on CROP+ was done to investigate how it reacts to abiotic stress. Abiotic stress is the adverse effect of any abiotic factor (non-living) on a plant in a given environment, impacting plants’ growth and development.
To determine the influence of cold stress; and the effect of use the bio-stimulant CROP+ had on chemical characteristics, two tomato fruit plants were subjected to low-temperature stress.
The plant on the right was treated with the Bio-Stimulant CROP+ (shown in Figure 1).
2 weekly product applications were made to the tomato plant on the right, then both plants were exposed to -5 degrees for periods of 2 hours.
It was successfully demonstrated that the anti-oxidant technology in CROP+ reduced abiotic stress.
Key findings:
Improves flavour by increasing the soluble solids/acidity index on tomato fruits, even under water stress.
Causes Improved quality of taste and sweetness of tomato.
Leads to an Improvement in quality retained 9 days post-harvest.
Biostimulant demand is Rising
Demand for Biostimulants is rising, which could have many negative effects on the environment, due to the byproducts of producing them.
S&P Global estimates the bio-stimulants market to be worth around US$2,556 million in 2021, growing at 10% per annum, indicating increasing global demand for bio-stimulants.
Markets & Markets values the bio-stimulants market at USD 3.5 billion in 2022, projected to grow at a CAGR of 11.8% to reach USD 6.2 billion by 2027.
A log
What NUENeeds To Happen To meet the CAGR forecast
Agricultural Challenges
Seaweed
Global seaweed production has risen exponentially to 30Mton annually and could face production limitations.
37% of bio-stimulants used globally contain seaweed extracts and represent $940m.
Seaweed has potential as a direct food source for humans and animals, seaweed extracts are not only shown to boost abiotic stress resistance in crops but also to increase their nutritional value.
Overall crop yield could be increased by the application of seaweed extracts as bio-stimulants under normal and stress conditions.
Humic & fulvic acid
33% of bio-stimulants globally use coal extracts, and this represents $840m globally.
Coal as a source of energy is damaging the global environment.
The materials derived from coal are useful in agriculture as fertilisers, insecticides, disinfectants, herbicides, fungicides, fumigants, preservatives, plant-growth regulators, and food dyes.
Crop nutrition derived from coal provides phosphorus, calcium, and other nutrients that crops need to grow while increasing soils’ capacity to hold water.
Amino acids and Microbials
30% of bio-stimulants used globally contain amino acids and microbials. Amino acid sources are marine, animal, and veg, which represent $800m globally.
Amino acids and microbials can modulate gene expression and induce metabolic changes in treated crops.
The most likely candidates for the biostimulant effects of AC & MB are the complex carbohydrate compounds found in these extracts.
This is the future, but obstacles exist in the supply chain around the sources of amino acids and amongst industry regulators for microbials.
Grower Adoption
US market growth is needed, as it is currently so small, and it holds the distinction of being the top producer in the world of maize.
The average size of a maize field in the US is around 4 times the size of the average French farm. The cost of facilitating a 2nd treatment/application is potentially inordinate and causing concern amongst growers regarding the retainable ROI.
Biostimulants going forward must have a clear demonstratable ROI across the environment, climate, quality, and yield.
Closing The Gap
To reach our projected CAGR and solve our climate challenges, while protecting nature, supermarkets must embrace, transform and help accelerate innovation in agriculture.
As the preeminent link in the supply chain from manufacturer to consumer tier-one supermarkets need to take accountability and responsibility, by not creating regulations, policies, and procedures for their respective supply chains, outside of the industry, regulator, and consumer requirements.
To reach our goals we must close the gap in agriculture, with new technologies and methods of producing food that maximise quality and protect nature.
Conclusions
Impact
Growers are unintentionally blocking the projected 11.8% CAGR, due to their compressed margins and the continued pressure to operate at a profit.
With many growers in single percentage ROI, they are forming cost-based views around the importance of Bio-Stimulants and sustainable farming.
Reduce
The retail sector of the supply chain is the key to overcoming this sustainable farming obstacle as they are the gateway and controller to the consumer.
This gives them the power to influence the grower in a sustainability and environmental direction.
Quality
The whole industry needs a collective independent body from the 500+ manufacturers within it, to create awareness and educate the retailers.
We need to help Retailers do the right thing in their supplier policies back to the growers, encouraging them to embrace our Bio-stimulant advancements and control what they should be doing in their farming practice.
Agricultural Challenges | Summary
We must:
Collectively move the grower’s mindset.
Embrace the next generation of technology and innovation.
Reverse our unintentional damage to the environment.
Support and show commitment with tier-one supermarkets.
Educate the supply chain and the Industry collective body needs to create awareness.
Have a clear ROI for Bio-stimulants going forward (environment, climate, quality, and yield).
Link To Presentation
You can find more information on this research in the link to our presentation:
Exploring Bio-Stimulants Presentation
Norwich Research Park
Verdesian Europe & Africa
John Innes Centre
SEAD Artists
Majd Hishmeh 
Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing Limited
UK Agri-Tech Centre Ltd
Cranfield University
