BASF’s “new focused approach” aims to boost agricultural innovation pipeline by 25%

04 Mar 2020 --- BASF has announced an increased projected peak sales potential for its innovation pipeline of agricultural solutions of more than €7.5 billion (US$8.4 billion). By 2029, the company aims to launch more than 30 key projects, including novel seeds and traits, chemical and biological crop protection, digital products and new formulations to broaden its offerings.

“Agriculture is so central to our lives that it has a powerful impact on everyone. That’s why we must address the environmental, climate and societal challenges that are becoming more pressing every day. Our aim is to find practical solutions that enable higher yielding and more stress-tolerant crop production, reduce farming’s CO2 footprint and increase biodiversity,” says Vincent Gros, President of BASF’s Agricultural Solutions division.

The agri-food tech space has heated up significantly over the last year, raking in 250 percent in funding growth over the last five years. This is among the highlights presented by the 2019 Agri-FoodTech Investing Report, issued by Silicon Valley venture capital platform AgFunder last month.

In line with its strategy in agriculture, BASF increases its focus on connected solutions for farmers to enable balancing agricultural productivity, environmental protection and society’s needs. BASF will build on its research and development (R&D) investment for agricultural solutions over recent years with a planned expenditure in 2020 around the prior-year level. In 2019 alone, the company spent €879 million (US$981 million) in R&D in the Agricultural Solutions division, representing around 11 percent of sales for the segment.

BASF’s stake in sustainable agriculture is based on active R&D portfolio steering and sustainability criteria that are fully integrated into the entire process. “Our new strategy has sharpened our innovation focus around specific agricultural crop systems. We are applying all available scientific technologies to develop sustainable solutions that meet long-term economical, ecological and societal needs,” says Peter Eckes, President Bioscience Research at BASF.

Higher yielding and stress tolerant crops for a lower CO2 footprint
To meet today’s farming challenges, BASF’s innovation pipeline is focused on new technologies and solutions for four strategic customer segments and their respective crop systems:

•   Soy, corn and cotton.

•   Wheat, canola and sunflowers.

•   Rice.

•   Fruit and vegetables.

An example of the company’s R&D potential is demonstrated through pipeline projects in the crop system that includes wheat, canola (oilseed rape), sunflower – addressing a market valued at around €12 billion (US$13.4 billion). In this market, BASF is developing innovative solutions for climate resilient farming with higher yielding as well as drought and heat tolerant crops that require fewer resources, such as water and plant protection products. They enable farmers to sustainably increase yields and reduce tillage, thereby minimizing erosion and greenhouse gas emissions. 

Examples include:

• In seeds, BASF’s InVigor pod shatter reduction and clubroot-resistant trait technologies for canola are marketed as helping protect yield potential from clubroot. In addition, for this season the company has just launched “300 series” InVigor canola featuring three new hybrids that offer growers improvements either in yield, pod shatter reduction protection or clubroot resistance. BASF is also launching InVigor RATE, a target plant population recommendation supported with innovative seeding rate to further optimize the performance of the company’s canola seed.

• Mid-decade, BASF will be introducing LibertyLink yellow-seed canola, which can be grown under more challenging conditions and will provide new rotation options for wheat growers in drier areas of North America, where drought and heat stress make regular canola a less viable crop.

• In fungicides, BASF recently launched Revysol, a fungicide active ingredient that offers biological performance against a range of difficult-to-control pathogens in specialty and row crops. In addition, the novel fungicide active ingredient Pavecto, co-developed with Sumitomo Chemical, will provide farmers with a unique tool for resistance management.

• In insecticides, BASF has developed Broflanilide together with Mitsui Chemicals Agro, Inc. The new active ingredient, to be launched from this year onward, will help farmers protect specialty and field crops from insect pests, such as potato beetles. 

Edited by Benjamin Ferrer