New R&D Strategies

By Renee Targos
Editor

Through mergers and acquisitions and re-strategizing product research and development, Syngenta Crop Protection, BASF, Bayer, and Corteva Agriscience are responding to agricultural industry restructuring caused by government initiatives, consumer buying trends, global sustainability goals, and precision ag tech.

For Corteva, the company is aligning its product development with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). Corteva created its Sustainable Innovation criteria that includes 12 defined points with metrics focused for crop protection or seed development.

Sam Eathington

“The innovation must meet baseline requirements and deliver at least one notable sustainability advantage while maintaining parity compared to other products in the market today,” said Sam Eathington, Executive Vice President, Chief Technology and Digital Officer for Corteva Agriscience.

“Applying sustainable innovation criteria aligned to the UN SDGs throughout the product development process allows us to ensure the products in our pipeline are continuously raising the bar as we strive to bring the leading sustainable solutions to farmers. This enables us to go above and beyond the global regulatory requirements. Corteva also has internal decision criteria and processes, informed by lab and field testing, predictive essays, and models, that need to be achieved before designating a product as a sustainable innovation.”

The company has committed that by 2025, 100% of its pipeline innovations will meet its Sustainable Innovation criteria. It’s off to a good start with its 2022 pipeline innovations in crop protection and seed meeting those criteria already at 100%.

“We have a world class R&D machine with an industry-leading return on investment, creating the science and technology to help solve some of the world’s greatest challenges — including food security, climate change, and the energy transition,” Chuck Magro, Chief Executive Officer for Corteva Agriscience, said during his R&D Innovation Day speech in May.

Chuck Magro

“We’ve set a target to invest approximately 8% of sales in R&D and innovation by 2025, which translates into about $400 million of additional investment.”

For Syngenta Crop Protection, sustainability is a driving force for product R&D. “We’re fully committed to delivering innovations that help farmers grow more productively and sustainably, that reduce agriculture’s environmental footprint,” said Camilla Corsi, Global Head of Crop Protection. “In 2023, we are making great strides in bringing our cutting-edge solutions to more markets around the world.”

Some examples of this kind of technology include Tinivion, with its active ingredient spiropidion, which targets sucking pests while remaining safe for pollinators and other beneficial insects. Another substantial investment for Syngenta came in producing Tymirium, which protects against nematodes and soil-borne diseases, while helping to preserve soil biodiversity and health. For this and other products, Syngenta increased its investment into R&D capabilities at its Soil Health Center in Stein, Switzerland.

In 2022, BASF spent €944 million on research and development in the Agricultural Solutions segment, representing around 9% of the segment’s sales (2021: €900 million).

Padma Commuri

“In 2023, we will continue to invest in research and development of agricultural innovations at a high level,” said Padma Commuri, Director, Research & Development, BASF Agricultural Solutions North America.

In a press statement, Dr. Peter Eckes, President R&D and Regulatory of BASF Agricultural Solutions, said, “Our pipeline demonstrates that we are not only leveraging our deep expertise in chemistry and environmental sciences, but also matching it with leading biotechnology and digitalization approaches for next generation solutions.”

Formulations for Precision Ag Tech

Multinationals are focusing R&D efforts to create products that work well with drones and other precision ag technology.

BASF partnered with BOSCH to create One Smart Spray, which combines Bosch’s high-tech camera and sensor technology, software and image processing with agronomic intelligence of BASF’s xarvio to allow for a highly efficient and more sustainable use of herbicides.

“We believe in the potential of new application technologies like smart spraying — such as BASF Bosch Smart Farming’s One Smart Spray solution — or drones,” said Commuri. “For example, BASF Agricultural Solutions started the Drones in Agriculture initiative aiming to give 8,000 farmers in Latin America access to drone technology within five years. These solutions allow for precise, targeted, and thereby more sustainable use of crop protection products, while saving farmers’ resources and further increase the safety of our products.”

For Syngenta, the company monitors ag technology that growers are using to develop products that meet their needs. “We recognize the tremendous potential that precision agriculture holds for farmers and agriculture,” Corsi said. “We constantly explore – and actively invest in – developing solutions that enable the precise application of our products, driving relevant research and development internally as well as collaborating with external partners to satisfy grower needs.”

Not all companies are investing in R&D for reformulating products for precision ag tech.

“We believe that new spraying technologies, such as those with detect and respond capabilities, but also growing platforms like UAVs and robotics, will become valuable tools for a more precise and targeted application of crop protection products,” said Eathington. “These tools combined with more efficacious, lower use rate sustainable herbicides could transform the way farmers control weeds. Given the low use rates of many of the products in our portfolio, we believe our products are well positioned to be used in these emerging precision spraying systems.”

Partnerships for Increasing Biological R&D

While R&D investments move toward making synthetic crop protection products more environmentally friendly, there is also a great focus on biologicals. BASF is investing in R&D for biologicals to keep up with the expanding biological pest and disease control sector.

“The future for biologicals looks promising, and we expect the trend and demand for healthy and fresh food to grow faster and consumers to value natural products even more,” said Commuri. “We see a great potential for growth when biologicals are getting into row crops such as corn or soy — not only as seed treatment, which is already widely used, but also as a soil and foliar application.”

In 2020, Bayer jump started its R&D for biologicals by inviting external partners to “plug in” their discoveries to its biological acceleration model.

“We bring unparalleled product development expertise to our partners, allowing innovations to scale and develop with a global infrastructure backbone including field testing, formulation, product and supply support,” said Dr. Bob Reiter, Head of Research and Development, Crop Science for Bayer.

Two years later, in August 2022, Bayer partnered with Ginkgo Bioworks to create Bayer Biologics, an R&D strategy to help identify biological products that advance nitrogen fixation, as well as crop protection and carbon sequestration.

Bob Reiter

“The transaction included the divestment of our West Sacramento Biologics Research & Development site, and our internal discovery and lead optimization platform,” said Reiter.

“Joyn Bio, the joint venture created by Bayer and Ginkgo Bioworks in 2017, will be integrated into Ginkgo Bioworks. However, we retain the right to commercialize the technology to complement synthetic fertilizer use in the coming years.”

In February, Bayer partnered with the Spanish company Kimitec, to develop crop protection products sourced from natural plant extracts through the company’s expertise in biostimulants, biopesticides, and the soil microbiome. “The products and benefits that Kimitec’s partnership will bring to Bayer will help us to deliver products in line with the European Green Deal, while continuing to support global food security with safe, sustainable, effective products,” said Reiter.

For Corteva, it’s recent acquisition of Stoller and Symborg enhanced the company’s R&D capabilities.

“Farmers need new solutions to meet the changing food production demands, and we believe biologicals will be a significant part of that solution. The acquisition of Stoller and Symborg were key accelerators to our biologics strategy and catalyst to expand our R&D program,” said Eathington. “We approach biologicals as complementary to our crop protection business. Our goal is to utilize biologicals as another mechanism to address grower and consumer needs in the crop protection market.”  •

Photos from top:
metamorworks – Adobestock.com

Photo of Bob Reiter courtesy of Crop Science Division

all others used by permission