Agricultural Inoculants Market

Global Agricultural Inoculants Market Size (2022 – 2027)

The Global Agricultural Inoculants Market was worth US$ 1.13 billion in 2022, and it is estimated to reach a valuation of US$ 1.87 billion by the end of 2027, expanding at an annual growth rate of 10.6% between 2022 and 2027.  The agricultural inoculation is referred to the process of adding effective bacteria to the host plant seed before planting it to the soil. The inoculation helps in ensuring that there is enough of correct type of bacteria present in the soil so that a successful legume-bacterial symbiosis is established. Inoculation is the process of introducing the appropriate Rhizobium bacteria to the soil in numbers in order has successful nodulation. This process is done by either coating the seed with liquid or peat-based powder inoculants or by treating the soil with a granular or liquid inoculants’ Speific pulse crop requires specific Rhizobium species for nodulation. Inoculation helps in nitrogen fixation in the roots of crops which helps in producing good crop also reduces the use of chemical and fertilizers. The agricultural inoculation is required for these categories of crops such as Oilseeds & Pulses, Cereals & grains, Fruits, Vegetables, Forage.  The rising concern towards organic agriculture drives the growth of this market in the forecast period between 2022 and 2027.

Market Drivers

The driving force of the Agricultural Inoculants Market is raising awareness regarding loss of the using chemical fertilizers and pesticides around the globe. Generally, chemicals fertilizers and pesticides are used in various agricultural processes in order to provide nutrition and protection to the crops from insects, disease and harmful weeds. In order to meet the demand of food security of rising population, agrochemicals are applied in large quantities but the agrochemicals gets accumulated in the soil, plant parts, air which lead to contamination of soil that effects the agricultural as well as environment. Therefore, farmers are adopting agricultural inoculants in order to reduce soil contamination and yield nutritious and quality crops.

The growing adoption of organic farming worldwide drives the growth of this market. Farmers are adopting organic agriculture in order to grow organic and chemical free crops with the helps of microbes. Moreover, the demand of organically produced goods is significantly increasing, presenting the opportunities for the organic farmers directly fueling the growth of inoculation market in forecast period. Countries like U.S, India, Spain, Italy, Australia etc are contributing to the growth of inoculation market as these countries use to prefer inoculants as bio-fertilizers and bio-controls for agriculture.

Market Restraints

Farmers in some countries are still not aware or have limited knowledge bout the benefits of agricultural inoculation or some farmers are not willing to take risk during their crop production is limiting the growth of this market.

AGRICULTURAL INOCULANTS MARKET REPORT COVERAGE:

Market Segmentation

Global Agricultural Inoculants Market - By Function:

• Crop Nutrition
• Crop Protection

Based on Function type, the global agricultural inoculants market is segmented into Crop nutrition and Crop Protection. Crop nutrition segment is going to dominate the market in the forecast period. As agricultural inoculants have the ability to minimize the negative impact of chemicals input and consequently increases the quality and quantity of the crop production. Moreover, the inoculants are used as bio-fertilizers in order to increase the soil fertility as well as they are environment friendly and can help in delivering plant nutrients to plant in a more sustainable manner.

Global Agricultural Inoculants Market - By Microbe:

• Bacterial
• Fungal

Based on Microbe type, the global agricultural inoculants market is segmented into Bacterial and Fungal. Fungal segmented is expected to have fastest growth rate in the projected period because fungal inoculants help plant to absorb phosphorus and other nutrients for use. The fungi named Mycorrhizal that lives in plant roots and is well known for its ability to provide phosphorus to plants. However, the bacterial microbe is also expected to grow in this period because bacterial microbe as species of Rhizobium, Azospirillum, Azotobacter, Bacillus spp, and Pseudomonas can be used for wide range of applications either as a bio-fertilizer or bio-pesticide. Additionally, various companies have started investing in production of a blend of bacterial species with other, plant growth promoting microorganisms.

Global Agricultural Inoculants Market - By Crop:

• Oilseeds & Pulses
• Cereals & grains
• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Forage

Based on Crop, the global agricultural inoculants market is segmented into Oilseeds & Pulses, Cereals & grains, Fruits, Vegetables and Forage. Cereals & grains segment is going to dominate the market in the forecast period. The cereals & grains include wheat, corn, barley and rice cops. The high adoption of inoculants by several countries like U.S, Spain, China and Brazil for cereal crops such as corn, wheat and rice drives the growth of the market as U.S is the major wheat producing country. Wheat ranks third majorly produced crop in U.S following corn and soybean. Brazil is also largest producer of corn and is ranked among top most producer of corn in global level.

Global Agricultural Inoculants Market - By Application Method:

• Seed Inoculation
• Soil Inoculation

Based on Application Method, the global agricultural inoculants market is segmented into Seed Inoculation and Soil Inoculation and Others. Seed Inoculation is expected to hold the largest market share as seed inoculation is much important in order to yield nutritious and quality crops along with crop protection. Seed inoculation is much easy method of agricultural inoculation and has highly preferred in US and European countries. While soil treatment gets more preference in Asia-Pacific and Latin America because of high adoption of inoculation as bio-fertilizers in crop like corn, rice, sugarcane, soybean etc.

Global Agricultural Inoculants Market – By Region:

1. North America
2. Europe
3. Asia-Pacific
4. RoW (Rest of the World)

The North America has accounted for the largest share in production and consumption of agricultural inoculants. North America is putting its effort in developing new agricultural technologies and successfully applying those technologies in domestic farming systems. Mostly agricultural inoculants are used in oilseeds crop and maize. In United States, planting soybean inoculation is most commonly used and also U.S is the largest producer of wheat so the demand of agricultural inoculation is rising in this region which in turn boosts the growth of agricultural inoculation market in near future. Additionally, by considering the market potential of the agricultural inoculants in this region, companies are investing more in order to gain stronger foothold in market for catering the soaring demand.

South America is estimated to have healthy growth in this market in coming years due to huge adoption of agricultural inoculation in countries like Brazil and Argentina.

According to FAO, Europe has the second largest agricultural area under organic agriculture which will propel the growth of inoculants market in this region. Moreover, some of the European countries like Spain, Italy, France are large consumers of microbes as bio-fertilizers and bio-control agent.

In Asia-Pacific region, driving force for growth of inoculants market is countries like India, Australia, China has focused on having large area for organic agriculture. Also, the large area for rice cultivation requires bio-fertilizers for nitrogen fixation as well as bio-control microbial for cultivation of fruits and vegetables

Leading Company:

Cargill had the largest share of the world’s agricultural inoculants in terms of sales revenue in 2020.

Covid-19 Impact on Global Agricultural Inoculants Market: 

Agricultural inoculants market is majorly hold by some key players such as Converta(U.S), BASF (Germany), Bayer (Germany), Novozymes (Denmark), and Verdesian Life Sciences (US). The major companies have their own manufacturing as well as service facilities around the globe in various countries of region such as Asia-Pacific, Europe, North America, South America and Rest of the world. Pandemic has affected their business to some extent but there is no such significant impact on the global operations and supply chain of their agricultural inoculation products.

Key Players:

Some of the leading companies operating in the Global Agricultural Inoculants Market are:

• Corteva (US)
• BASF (Germany)
• Bayer (Germany)
• Cargill (US)
• Novozymes (Denmark)
• Verdesian Life Sciences (US)
• Advanced Biological Marketing Inc. (US)
• BrettYoung (US)
• Precision Laboratories, LLC (US)

Recent Developments:

• In October 2020, Univar Solutions Inc. has announced the addition of three new Novoenzymes BioAg inoculants named BioniQ, TagTeam BioniQ and Optimize LV to the NexusBioAg portfolio.of crop biological and fertility products. NexusBioAg is a division of Univar Solutions which is an exclusive distributor of Novozymes inoculants in Canada.
• In April 2019, Bayer has launched new industrial biological soybean inoculants in Brazil that is “CTS 500”.  The CTS 500 is a solution platform which brings together biological inoculation of selected bacteria with high efficiency and nitrogen fixation in order to provide largest number of nodules in the main roots.