BASF presents the latest advancements in its agricultural innovation pipeline of crop protection, seeds and traits, and digital solutions. Their focus is to provide much-needed solutions for farmers to overcome local and crop system specific pest pressures, climate challenges, changing regulatory requirements and rising consumer expectations.
Executing on its strategy in agriculture announced in 2019, the company is directing its innovations to improve outcomes for major regional crops, such as soy in the Americas, fruits and vegetables in Europe and rice in Asia Pacific. The value of the innovation pipeline remains strong, with an estimated peak sales potential of more than €7.5 billion fueled by products launched within the next ten years.
“Our goal is to become an ever more integrated provider of agricultural solutions and to expand the options we can offer to farmers. This is why we continue to invest substantially across our broad pipeline of agricultural technologies, with €944 million spent on Research & Development in 2022,” said Dr. Livio Tedeschi, President of BASF Agricultural Solutions. “Farmers can continue to rely on us to deliver and bring together new active ingredients, innovative formulations, and traits to get more value from their production, both economically and environmentally.”
“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,” adds Dr. Peter Eckes, President R&D and Regulatory of BASF Agricultural Solutions. “BASF’s industry-leading weed-control pipeline is a premier example of how our multidisciplinary approach yields solutions that balance the needs of farmers, society and the environment.”
Significant advancements of weed management solutions for farmers in Europe
BASF is releasing unmatched weed management solutions for farmers in Europe:
• The SMART SPRAYING SOLUTION by Bosch BASF Smart Farming is commercially available in Europe for corn, sunflower, sugar beet, and soybean. The technology, which supports a more efficient use of herbicides, is accessible to farmers through a partnership with German-based agricultural machinery manufacturer Dammann initially in Germany and Hungary. Bosch BASF Smart Farming is advancing additional partnerships and field trials in the Americas and Europe, with the aim of continued commercial launches within the 2023/24 season.
• A significant step forward in weed management was introduced to wheat farmers in Great Britain in 2022 with the approval of Luximo® Active. With its novel mode of action, Luximo is a vital tool for controlling blackgrass and Italian ryegrass, some of the most challenging and yield-robbing weeds. Further Luximo registrations are expected mid-decade in Europe. Luximo provides farmers in the region with a new tool for resistant weeds, which is crucial to efficient use of crop protection products on farmland.
Innovations for farmers growing fruits and vegetables in Europe
In Europe, BASF aims to improve fruit and vegetable quality and flavor, and to reduce food loss and waste through seed breeding and innovations in chemistry and digital:
• BASF is set to launch its latest insecticide active ingredient Axalion™ Active. It is a new class of chemistry with a new mode of action, designed to safeguard harvest from a broad spectrum of damaging piercing and sucking pests. While working harmoniously with beneficials and pollinators, Axalion controls pests that have developed resistance to existing chemistries. Launches will start in 2023 in Asia Pacific, with additional registrations following in Europe and Latin America.
• After showing market-leading control of diseases in cereal, soybean and corn, BASF expects to launch Revysol® Active in fruits and vegetables as well as rice starting in 2023. The Revyona® formulation maintains the outstanding performance and favorable regulatory profile of Revysol, ensuring reliable yield and quality. The formulation provides a high level of control of powdery mildew, scab, and many other diseases in tree fruits, grapes, and potatoes.
• Through excellence in breeding, BASF’s vegetable seeds business developed Sunions®, the first tearless onion variety available in supermarkets. Since 2022, it is also available throughout France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom.
• Farmers in multiple European countries now have access to BASF’s vegetable seeds varieties with resistance to aggressive and difficult to control viruses. These include Tomato Brown Rugose Fruit Virus (ToBRFV) and Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus (TSWV) whose infections lead to food loss and waste caused by crop loss and quality impacts.
o Different novel resistance to ToBRFV are available in commercial varieties at large scale in Spain, the Netherlands as well as in Turkey, Morocco, Canada and Mexico besides various other countries
o Launched in Europe throughout 2021 and 2022, the Tayson variety of processing tomato has dual resistance against TSWV, which complements the variety’s already most complete trait package on the market.
• In 2022, BASF’s offer of digital agronomic advice for fruits and vegetables was improved with the integration of the decision support systems from the acquisition of Horta, an Italian digital farming company. A new offer is the Agrigenius Vite application, which enables wine growers to make smarter decisions about fungicide applications, maximizing yield and quality while reducing the environmental impact.
