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There is little doubt that the market for biocontrol products in
agriculture has increased dramatically over the last few years and
will continue to do so over the foreseeable future. The biggest
growth rates are expected in Latin America, mainly due to the
entrance of biocontrol products into row crops and cereals in
Brazil.
It is estimated that global sales of biocontrol products increased
from US$ 0.1 billion in 1993 to around US$ 3 billion in 2016, with
a projection of sales of nearly US$ 5 billion in 2020.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the
US, biopesticides are classed as certain types of pesticides
derived from such natural materials as animals, plants, bacteria
and certain minerals. In an Agrow search carried out in January
2020, there were 366 active ingredients registered by the EPA as
biopesticides. There were also 32 Plant Incorporated Protectant
Active Ingredients registered by the EPA.
The drivers behind the rapid growth forecast for this crop
protection sector are:
Increased Pesticide Resistance
With the increasing use of pesticides, many crops and target pests
have developed resistance to traditional pesticides. Strategies to
counter this have included pesticide mixtures, rotations but also
the inclusion of more natural crop control methods and the use of
integrated pest management (IPM).
Consumer Perception
In Europe particularly, there is a negative perception from the
public of "chemicals" and pesticides and any products which make a
claim to be natural are regarded as being "better" and
"safer".
Increased Focus by Regulators/Governments on "Synthetic
Pesticides"
Many of the traditional products for crop protection need their
approvals renewing and the regulators are now being increasingly
wary of renewing approvals. The large majority of biopesticide
applications are as insecticides, fungicides or nematicides. There
are however relatively few bioherbicides and this is perhaps one
application, which if effective actives can be found, then a
further growth spurt in the sector could be seen.
Formulation for better products
The market for biocontrol agents is a fast growing one with
increasing expectations. Formulation will be key to meeting these
expectations and will follow mainly the same path as that for
conventional plant protection products with the exception that the
changes are likely to be much quicker. Market expectations for the
quality and performance of biological products will probably
increase, and this is also likely to drive investment in
formulation technology across the industry.
Formulation is often called an enabling technology; in that it
enables one or more active ingredients to work most effectively in
a particular application. The process of formulation enables
relatively small quantities of active ingredient to be applied
safely and effectively. Clearly without active ingredients a
biopesticide or bio-agricultural product will not work, but
conversely without proper formulation the product is unlikely to
perform at anywhere near its optimum level.
In conventional plant protection products, we have seen the
significant development of combining actives, mainly to combat
resistance issues, but this trend towards more complex and combined
treatment regimens with biocontrol products is being observed and
we can expect to see more of these in the next few years and of
course formulation will play a key role in establishing
compatibility and stability.
As well as these combination products we are expecting to see
more regulation, better use of adjuvants and co-formulants and an
alignment to the other drivers of smart agriculture.
Our latest report offers an in-depth review of the
bioformulations market, covering formulations of microorganisms,
proteins, peptides, enzymes, bioingredients and other natural
chemicals.
