Crop Protection Chemicals Market Overview

Crop protection is the general method or practice of protecting crop yields against different agents like pests, weeds, plant diseases, and other organisms that cause damage to crops. Different types of pesticides are used as crop protection chemicals, including fungicides, herbicides, insecticides, nematicides, rodenticides, algicides, acaricides, and molluscicides. These are mostly small creatures that abound in agricultural fields, such as rats, mites, insects, pathogens, etc. and are often targeted by birds. These factors are mainly responsible for the loss or damage to the crops.

 

Crop Protection Chemicals Market experiencing significant growth of XX% every year and is expected to continue its growth during the forecast period. Syngenta Group (Switzerland),  BASF SE (Germany), Bayer AG (Germany), Corteva Agriscience (US), and UPL (India) are well-established players in the Global White Oil Market. Syngenta Group is a global leader in the Crop Protection Chemicals Market which offers a wide range of herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, and other crop protection products to safeguard crops from pests, diseases, and weeds. Syngenta Group’s Advanced digital tools and solutions help farmers optimize their operations, improve yields, and make data-driven decisions. Asia Pacific region held the dominant segment in the Crop Protection Chemicals Market in 2023.

 

The Crop Protection Chemicals Market is mainly driven by the Growing Need to Increase Crop Yield and Quality for the Rising Population and Climate Change, which will lead to the rapid growth of the Crop Protection Chemicals Market in the forecasting year 2024-2030. Growing Demand for Organic Farming is the main challenge in the Crop Protection Chemicals Market. Based on Type, the Herbicides segment dominated the Crop Protection Chemicals Market in 2023 with a share of XX%. Herbicides provide a convenient, economical, and effective way to help manage weeds. Herbicides are chemicals used to manipulate or control undesirable vegetation. Herbicide application occurs most frequently in row-crop farming, where they are applied before or during planting to maximize crop productivity by minimizing other vegetation.

 

To get more Insights: Request Free Sample Report

 

Crop Protection Chemicals Market Dynamics

Growing Need to Increase Crop Yield and Quality for the Rising Population

Crop protection chemicals provide farmers with a cost-effective way of improving the yield and the quality of their crops. Crop Protection Chemicals Market driven by increasing agricultural productivity and ensuring food security against the increasing global population. The scarcity of agricultural land and growing consumer demand for better quality food calls for crop protection chemicals more importantly to protect against pests, diseases, and weeds. Such chemicals maximize the yield of crops and sustain food supplies. They also make harvesting more straightforward and maintain consistent yields from year to year. With the rising levels of global population, the need for more and different types of food from the world's resources becomes real.

 

This generates a growing demand for nutrient-dense, residue-free food products commensurate with increased health awareness, the pace of socio-economic changes, and rapid urbanization. Modern innovations are also helping these chemicals minimize damage to the environment. Roughly 800 crop protection chemicals registered for use around the world sustain the lives of hundreds of millions of people. In North America, pests destroy an estimated 37% of the potential yield of plant crops. Crop chemicals attack pest nervous systems, affecting their metabolism or maturation process, or killing them outright, insecticides are used to stop locusts, crickets, beetles, leafhoppers, and other tiny vegetarians.

 

India is one of the leading producers of agrochemicals in the world and is being seen as an ideal hub for export-oriented production of agrochemicals. Many governments encourage the use of crop protection chemicals through policies and subsidies to the agricultural sector. Innovations in the increasingly applied methods of crop protection, such as precision agriculture, biopesticides, and advanced formulations, are contributing to more efficient and sustainable practices. Technologies like GPS, drones, and IoT allow for better targeting and effectiveness of chemicals, reducing waste and lessening the environmental impact.

 

In March 2024, exports of agri-food products from the European Union reached €20.1 billion, a 4% month-on-month increase. The United Kingdom remained the first destination of EU agri-food exports, accounting for 22% of the export value in the EU during the current quarter. Over the first quarter of 2024, the United States continued to be the largest increase in EU exports, at 6% or €372 million; then came China, still ranking third, despite a value reduction of 12%. Of the many evolutions carried out, some significant ones include EU exports increasing to Iraq and Lebanon while decreasing in Russia and Egypt.

 

• According to the United Nations report, the current world population is 7.6 billion which expected to reach 8.6 billion in 2030, 9.8 billion in 2050 and 11.2 billion in 2100. With roughly 83 million people being added to the world’s population every year, the upward trend in population size is expected to continue.
• According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the demand for cereals for human consumption and animal feed is projected to reach 3 billion tonnes by 2050, a significant increase from 2.1 billion tonnes in 2018. 

 

Climate Change Drives Crop Protection Chemicals Market

Climate change reduces crop yields and lowers the nutritional quality of produce. Extreme events like droughts affect food and nutrient consumption, and its impact on farmers. Increasing temperatures and heat stress, shifting rainfall patterns are putting crops in a position of reduced resilience. Heavy rainfalls can lead to more soil erosion, which is a major environmental threat to sustainable crop production. In some areas, rising temperatures will most probably favor an increase in insect populations. Climate change makes weeds more resilient than cultivated crops because they have more diversity in their gene pool and a greater ability for acclimation. Rising temperatures and shifting climatic conditions present a favorable atmosphere for pests, leading to infections and crop damage.

 

The change in moisture levels in a warmer climate also contributes to the emergence and spread of plant diseases. These challenges require farmers to invest in resilient crop varieties and implement integrated pest management practices. Climate change is projected to reduce wheat yield by 19.3% in 2050 and 40% in 2080 scenarios towards the end of the century with significant spatial and temporal variations. Weeds can be expected to have an increased potential in many regions to outcompete crops, leading to declining yields. Climate change speeds the degradation of pesticides, and thus farmers will apply them within a short time as they will be inactivated within a short period, hence increasing their application rates.

 

Every year in India, pests and diseases eat away, on average, 20-30% of food, worth about Rs. 45000 crores, produced by the farmers. Moreover, the damage by fungi to rice, wheat, and maize alone costs USD 60 billion per year and the Fungal diseases destroy 125 million tonnes of rice, wheat, maize, potatoes, and soybeans each year. Stemming fungal diseases alone in the world’s five most important crops could feed more than 600 million people.

 

• Brazil is the key pesticide consumer in the region. The growth of the Brazil crop protection chemicals market is driven by growing exports of agricultural commodities, an increasing area under cultivation, and modern farm inputs, including these protection products.
• A Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) report in 2021, on the agrochemical sector, stated that India is one of the most prominent exporters of agrochemicals in the world, exporting to four main countries – USA, Japan, China, and Brazil. The most prominent agrochemicals exported include mancozeb, 2,4D, acephate, chlorpyrifos, cypermethrin, and profenos.

 

Crop Protection Chemicals Market Challenges

Growing Demand for Organic Farming

Organic farmers do not use artificial chemicals, like pesticides or synthetic fertilizers. Organic farmers do not utilize GM elements, nor is food exposed to radiation. Most people buy organically-grown food due to concerns related to pesticides, additives, antibiotics, and other chemical residues and believe that organic food is safer. Organic foods promote healthier and additional sustainable usage of natural resources. Traditional farming contains the use of extreme pesticides as well as the repeated planting of the same crop. Over time, this has resulted in a reduction in soil fertility, as well as an increase in salt and blue-green algae in streams. Organic crop farms save 75-100 % on plant protection product costs per hectare and 45-90% on fertilizer expenses per hectare when compared to conventional Farms and produce a higher or similar income per working unit.

 

As customers become more health-conscious and ecologically sensitive, they are eager to pay extra price for organic goods. This demand has resulted in the increase of the organic agriculture sector, which is likely to increase further in the years ahead. Organic farming is often regarded as a considerably more sustainable method of food production. The lack of pesticides and a wider range of plants expand biodiversity, resulting in higher soil quality and less pollution from fertilizer or pesticides. Conventional farming has been deeply criticized for causing biodiversity loss, soil erosion, and rising water pollution due to the rampant usage of artificial fertilizers and pesticides. Organic agricultural systems offer an extensive range of conservation benefits, including better soil and water quality, resilience to climate disruption, lesser use of non-renewable energy, growing biodiversity, and wildlife habitat quality.

 

• According to reports, India increased its organic agriculture land under cultivation by 145.1%, India has 4.43 Mn organic farmers, the highest in the world.

 

Crop Protection Chemicals Market Segment Analysis

Based on Type, the Herbicides segment dominated the Crop Protection Chemicals Market in 2023 with a share of XX%. Herbicides provide a convenient, economical, and effective way to help manage weeds. Herbicides are chemicals used to manipulate or control undesirable vegetation. Herbicide application occurs most frequently in row-crop farming, where they are applied before or during planting to maximize crop productivity by minimizing other vegetation. They also may be applied to crops in the fall, to improve harvesting. Herbicides can act by inhibiting cell division, photosynthesis, or amino acid production or by mimicking natural plant growth hormones, causing deformities. Application methods include spraying onto foliage, applying to soils, and applying directly to aquatic systems.

 

Without herbicide use, no-till agriculture becomes impossible. Herbicides may not be a necessity on some farms or landscape settings, but without the use of chemical weed control, mechanical and cultural control methods become that much more important. Without effective herbicides, farmers can lose up to 40% of their crop yield as a result of weed growth. There are many kinds of herbicides from which to choose. Many factors determine when, where, and how a particular herbicide can be used most effectively. Understanding some of these factors enables you to use herbicides to their maximum advantage. In comparison with manual weeding techniques, herbicides are more effective they are preferred in places where the majority of laborers are scarce.

 

Herbicides are increasingly being used in countries like India and China, with rising labor costs and a falling availability of labor, to ensure maximum yield. Therefore, constant development and use of new herbicides are essential as resistant weed species are rising in population. Farmers often adopt advanced herbicide formulations in attempts to manage the grown-resistant weeds. No-till farming can lead to increased herbicide use because weeds can't be mechanically removed before planting. Herbicides replace the traditional weed control method of fall tillage with a single spring application. The use of herbicides will continue to remain important as they can significantly impact the yield and prevent harmful weeds from growing and being processed alongside crops.

 

• In Africa, farmers' losses yield ranges from 25% to total crop failure because farmers are unable to perform the necessary weddings at the optimal times. Smallholder farmers in the continent are losing every year half a million tons of rice worth about US $200 million because of parasitic weeds.

• Brazil lose about 1 million tons of rice annually, which is about 8% of the national production. This could result in an annual loss of around USD 200 million.

 

Crop Protection Chemicals Market Regional Insights

Asia Pacific dominated the Crop Protection Chemicals Market and accounted for an XX% share in 2023. In Asia Pacific, more than 2.2 billion people in the region rely on agriculture for their livelihoods around 60% of the economically active population and their dependents. Rice is by far the most important crop throughout Asia - 90% of the world's production and consumption occurs in this region. it was estimated biotech crops were grown on 160 million hectares of land - making it the fastest-adopted crop technology. India grew more than 10.6 million hectares of cotton, the People's Republic of China planted 3.9 million hectares of cotton, papaya, poplar, tomato, and sweet pepper while Pakistan farmed 2.6 million hectares of cotton. Asia and the Pacific account for 37% of the world's total emissions from agricultural production, and the People's Republic of China alone accounts for more than 18% of the total.

 

In Asian countries, agriculture is the biggest user of water and can reach up to 90% of total water consumption. While agriculture’s contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) is declining throughout the region, large populations are still based in rural areas, depending on agriculture directly or indirectly for employment and income. Food security has been improving rapidly in East Asia overall, but 30% of Mongolia’s population remains undernourished. While agriculture is crucial for the region’s food security and forms the backbone of much of the employment, farming agro-ecosystems vary significantly, ranging from the relatively dry wheat-producing areas of Central Asia to the very wet rice-producing lands of Southeast Asia these factors drive the Crop Protection Chemicals Market.

 

• In December 2023, ADAMA introduced its most advanced cross-spectrum herbicide called Kampai for the grain business. The new product provides the broadest application window for broadleaf and narrow-leaf weed control for cereal crops.
• According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in 2022, the production of grains in North America witnessed an upward trend from 437,578 thousand metric tons in 2021, to 454,922 thousand metric tons in 2022. Thus, this increasing productivity of cereals & grains is resulting in to increase in demand for crop protection chemicals required for better yield.

Crop Protection Chemicals Market Scope

 

Crop Protection Chemicals Market by Region

North America (United States, Canada, and Mexico)

Europe (UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Austria and Rest of Europe)

Asia Pacific (China, South Korea, Japan, India, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Rest of APAC)

Middle East and Africa (South Africa, GCC, Egypt, Nigeria and Rest)

South America (Brazil, Argentina, Rest of South America)

 

Crop Protection Chemicals Market Key Players.

• BASF SE (Germany)
• Bayer AG (Germany)
• Corteva Agriscience (US)
• FMC Corporation (US)
• Syngenta Group (Switzerland)
• UPL (India)
• ChemChina (Beijing, China)
• Sumitomo Chemicals (Tokyo, Japan)
• Albaugh LLC (US)