The global market for crop protection consists of crop protection chemicals, seeds, and genetically modified crops. Crop protection chemical is the most important and dominating segments of this market in terms of market share and product innovation. This market is further divided into following segments:
- Pesticides
- Bio-Pesticides
- Micro Nutrients
- Adjuvant
Amongst these segments, micro nutrients, bio-pesticides, and adjuvant are used in minimum quantities and constitutes a minor share in this market and as a result, crop protection market is normally referred to as pesticides market.
This market is expected to witness remarkable growth in near future as a result of government initiatives to support and increase agricultural production to meet the food requirements of growing population. Asian market, being the highest importer of food, will be the largest consumer and present suitable ground for crop protection products.
Pesticides Market
Pesticides market is further segmented into synthetic pesticides and bio-based pesticides. Bio-based pesticides are made from renewable resources and contain no synthetic ingredients. These pesticides have much more positive impact on environment as compared to their synthetic counterparts. With all these advantages, bio-based pesticide is expected to be the fastest growing segments in near future.
Synthetic pesticides are manufactured from petroleum products or inorganic raw materials and further classified as
- Insecticides
- Herbicides
- Fungicides
Synthetic pesticides market is dominated by fungicides, accounting over 40% of the total demand for pesticides while herbicides market is expected to grow at the annual growth rate of 4.6% per year. Sale of insecticides is expected to be higher in Asia as insecticide is the most popular pesticide in Asian countries. Global market for insecticides is estimated to grow by 4.1% annually till 2016.
Need of Crop Protection
Shrinking of cultivable land, increasing population, and need to improve crop yields are some major factors driving the demand for crop protection in upcoming years. However, restrictions from government agencies and regulatory authorities to limit the use of pesticides to reduce harmful impact on environment and growing consumer awareness is expected to hamper the growth of crop protection chemicals market in near future.
Pesticides can be manufactured with the use of different types of raw materials. Commonly used raw materials for manufacturing pesticide are sulfur, oxygen, chlorine, phosphorous, nitrogen, bromine, and phenol.
North America and Europe were the biggest consumers of pesticides in the past, but regulatory push towards limiting the use of pesticides and increasing consumer awareness resulted in a significant decline in the demand of pesticides in these regions. Asia Pacific market is expected to gain traction in the upcoming years as a result of increasing modernization of agriculture in India and China, both countries being major food exporters.
Among all crop protection chemicals, herbicides is the largest segment accounting over 42% of the market share followed by insecticide and fungicides at second and third place respectively with the market shares of 28% and 23%.
Major players dominating the market of crop protection chemicals are Bayer Crop Science (Germany), BASF (Germany), Monsanto (US), Dow Agrosciences (US), Syngenta (Switzerland), Nugarm (Australia), Sumitomo (Japan), and others.