The world’s food supply is approaching a critical threshold. With the need to nearly double crop output by 2050 and environmental pressures tightening, farmers need solutions that improve yields but don’t come at the cost of soil and water health, biodiversity, or already-razor-thin profit margins.
One promising answer to these challenges is biostimulants.
Sitting somewhere in between crop nutrition products (such as fertilizers) and crop protection products (like pesticides), biostimulants offer some of the benefits of both these categories, while working in a different way.
While fertilizers deliver nutrients to the plant, and pesticides attack pests and diseases, biostimulants work directly on the plant’s own physiology, enhancing natural biological processes in the plant itself and the soil it grows in to boost stress tolerance, improve nutrient uptake, and increase yields.
Biostimulants have been around for some time, in one form or another. But there is now a resurgence in interest, thanks to advances in innovation, regulatory tailwinds, and the urgency to produce more food, more sustainably.
What Are Biostimulants?
Biostimulants comprise a broad variety of inputs that are applied to seeds, foliage, or soil to enhance crop yield and stress tolerance by modulating biological and physiological processes.
While they are distinct from fertilizers and pesticides, they’re often complementary to them.
This flexibility means that biostimulants may be bundled with fertilizers to reduce reliance on chemicals or used alongside pesticides as part of crop protection programs. They can also play a central role in regenerative farming to improve and maintain optimal soil biology.
The Market Is Moving Toward Biologicals
Many of the latest biostimulant products are biological, and may contain microbes, plant and algae extracts, acids, or proteins.
The global market for biological inputs – including biostimulants as well as biocontrols, biopesticides, and biofertilizers – is projected to match the chemical crop inputs market by the 2040s driven by:
- Climate change adaptation and resilience (maintaining crop production amid more frequent heatwaves, droughts, and floods; water scarcity; salinity)
_ - Degrading soil health due to outdated land management practices, overapplication of chemicals and nutrients
_ - Farm economics (the need for alternative tools amid straining fertilizer supply chains, mounting pesticide resistance, and rising input costs in general)
_ - Regulatory advances, particularly in Brazil, the EU, and India, where biostimulants are now treated as a distinct product category
_ - Carbon market interest, with some innovators (e.g., Loam Bio, Sound Agriculture) emphasizing the carbon capture capabilities of their biostimulants and building carbon credits platforms
Biological Crop Inputs: Discrete but Overlapping Categories
Innovation At an Inflection Point
The latest technological advances are expanding the capabilities of biostimulants by speeding up R&D and bringing down some of the costs of production:
- AI-driven screening platforms (e.g., Lavie Bio) are accelerating discovery of microbes, active compounds, and mechanisms of action
_ - Precision fermentation capacity is enabling scaled-up manufacturing (e.g., Ginkgo Bioworks)
_ - Upcycled feedstocks are being leveraged for biostimulant properties (e.g., Tidal Vision using chitosan from seafood waste)
Incumbents In Acquisition Mode
Established agrochemical and agribusiness players are also leaning into the biostimulants trend as they recognize the need to supplement their reliance on conventional chemistries.
As regulatory pressure on chemicals intensifies and farmers seek alternatives, biostimulants offer a way to extend agrochemical product portfolios and reduce risk profiles.
Mosaic acquired biologicals innovator Plant Response, transforming it into its in-house biologicals business. Fellow fertilizer giant ICL has made multiple acquisitions and strategic bets on AI-powered discovery. Syngenta has inked a range of partnerships to distribute third-party biostimulant products and bring more AI capabilities on board; it also acquired biostimulant company Valagro to expand its product portfolio.
Challenges Remain
Despite all this growing interest, biostimulants as a category still lack the recognition of fertilizers and pesticides. Farmer awareness remains low, on the whole; while biostimulants are still perceived as being ‘nice-to-have’ rather than necessities. Then there’s the complex issue of regulation, with biostimulants treated as either fertilizers or pesticides in many parts of the world, or not recognized at all.
In the U.S., biostimulants are currently regulated at a state level with significant variation between jurisdictions, complicating national go-to-market strategies.
On the other hand, key agricultural producers like Brazil, India, and the EU have increasingly recognized biostimulants as a distinct category in recent years, offering more regulatory clarity for innovators.
Final Take
As more and more data is collected from field trials and best practices are borne out, regulatory clearances and farmer adoption are likely to increase.
At this stage, innovators should focus on scientific and field validation, and forging smart partnerships with incumbents, co-ops, and other organizations that can help them navigate commercial and regulatory landscapes.
Biostimulants are no silver bullet; but they don’t need to be. As climate-related shocks become more severe and pressure builds to produce food ever more efficiently, biostimulants can ease our way on that journey, working in tandem with fertilizers, pesticides, and smart farm management.
