BIOLOGICAL SEED TREATMENT MARKET ANALYSIS

Market Challenges And Opportunities

Global Biological Seed Treatment Market Opportunities:

Growing demand for chemical-free crops is expected to provide significant growth opportunities. This is attributed to the growing environmental concerns and strict government policies regarding the use of chemical pesticides on fields.

Increasing need for high-value crops along with demand for industrial crops is also expected to provide significant growth opportunities. The high-value industrial crops cultivated in high yielding and deliver a higher net per hectare of product produced. These crops includes sugarcane, cotton, hybrid soybean, potatoes, fruits, spices, maize (corn), vegetables, flowers, and herbs.

Global Biological Seed Treatment Market Drivers:

Growing use of bio-priming techniques for improved efficiency to augment market growth

Bio-priming is the simple, most economical, and eco-friendly delivery system of beneficial microorganisms in the agro ecosystem.  For instance, the United Nations (UN) proposed 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) after seriously analyzing the situation and potential threats of climate change. These goals aim at collaborative efforts toward the upliftment of social and economic standards with no compromise on the environment and future generations.

New product launch in the market by key players is also propelling market growth

For instance, in 2018, BASF expanded its soybean seed treatment portfolio with the launch of Vault IP Plus seed treatment and Obvius® Plus fungicide seed treatment, recently registered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and useful for soybean growers with an even broader portfolio that will get them off to a strong start this season. Hence, advent of new products will further favor the market growth.

Global Biological Seed Treatment Market Restraints:

High costs of biological seed treatment and low availability

For instance, according to the American Soybean Association, seed and seed treatment costs may represent a considerable amount of the input costs for a farmer. For example, soybean seed and FST (Fungicides Used for Seed Treatment) costs constitute 48% of the farmers’ input cost in the United States, which corresponds to over USD 7.5 billion annually. This is expected to hinder the market growth.

Government regulatory barriers

The regulations for biological ingredients differs across countries and regions. This is expected to restrict the market growth. In January 2021, the UK government issued, with strict conditions, emergency authorization to utilize a product containing a neonicotinoid to treat sugar beet seed in England. The Health and Safety Executive received an application from National Farmers Union (NFU) Sugar and British Sugar seeking emergency authorization for the work of a neonicotinoid product as a seed treatment on sugar beet.