Welcome to the 62nd Edition of Upstream Ag Professional!
Index
The Context Network's 2024 Biotech Traits Commercialized (BTC) Study Highlights and Analysis
Incentives and Influencing the Market vs. Letting the Market Influence You
Ag Retailers Slow to Add Drones + DJI Lobbying Spend
Syngenta Group Adds Cutting-Edge GenAI to Cropwise
How Bayer is unearthing agronomy's future with generative AI
AgroSpheres Secures $37M Series B Funding – Pushes for Growth
See & Spray Adoption: Farmers Success Stories & Why They Won’t Go Back
Why Trying to Be the Tesla of Agriculture Is Missing the Point—and What We're Doing Instead
Naval Ravikant & Balaji Srinivasan: Knowledge, Wealth, and AI's Future
Other Interesting Ag Articles (7 this week)
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Audio Edition: My apologies, this week I had commitments hinder my ability to record the audio edition. However, I used it as an opportunity to try Google’s NotebookLM, which leverages AI to generate audio. Given the AI emphasis within Upstream the last two weeks, it felt useful to illustrate how AI has improved on the audio front— I uploaded my highlights and analysis on the The Context Network's 2024 Biotech Traits Commercialized (BTC) Study only and the audio attached was generated, detailing key takeaways, with no edits by me.
This will not become the norm for the audio edition.
1. The Context Network's 2024 Biotech Traits Commercialized (BTC) Study Highlights and Analysis - Upstream Ag Professional
Recently, The Context Network shared their 2024 Biotech Traits Commercialized (BTC) Multi-client Study that explores the landscape of biotech traits, highlighting the current state, company development trends, and extrapolating future initiatives that will drive the commercial success of agribusinesses globally in the world of seed.
Interesting Takeaways:
In soybean, nearly 45% of permits were issued to Big 4 companies
2023 was a record trait launch year for both transgenic traits and non-transgenic traits with small entities outside the big four being the largest and fastest growing segment.
BASF, Bayer and Corteva have the highest percentage of their regulatory approvals globally associated with “food” based traits.
Syngenta is the sole entity of the big four with more emphasis on “cultivation” based traits. Notably, they had a 45% reduction in permits from 2022 to 2023.
Corteva also continues to expand its non-transgenic pipeline with 19 active projects targeting quality and agronomic traits, specifically in corn, soybeans, and canola.
GreenLab has a corn trait focused on production of manganese peroxidase (MnP), an enzyme primarily used by fungi to break down lignin which could help farmers by accelerating the decomposition of corn residue, enhancing farmer ability to implement reduced tillage.
Check out the link for the full Upstream Ag Professional breakdown.
Introduction
Growth Drivers of BioTech Traits
Insights by Company
BASF
Bayer
Corteva
Syngenta
Insights by Crop
Canola
Corn
Potato
Soybean
Wheat
Final Thoughts
Related: Legacies: Biotech booms with former Monsanto CTO Robb Fraley - AgDaily
2. Incentives and Influencing the Market vs. Letting the Market Influence You - Upstream Ag Professional
Key Takeaways
Success in agribusiness depends on whether a company actively shapes market narratives or passively reacts to external forces. The ability to influence customer perceptions, rather than letting market conditions dictate outcomes, is critical for staying competitive. Those who embrace this mindset can create demand for products like micronutrients, even in challenging economic conditions.
Note: The full article at the link has all associated images and backlinks. Several images and backlinks have been removed from the below to ensure email deliverability.
Incentives, differentiation, and crop protection vs. crop health
This week I read the Crop Life article Enhanced Application Accuracy, Focus on Plant Health Among Key Growth Drivers for Micronutrients Market that highlights multiple things contributing to micronutrient utilization, including that better awareness of micronutrients, more emphasis on plant health and farmers and improved products drive micronutrient utilization.
I think there are other key reasons: retail differentiation and margin opportunities.
If a retail can create a more valuable conversation with its customer, they win.
Every retailer can sell traditional crop protection products. Any retail can sell nitrogen. These products are widely accepted and what I consider usage as default products, or “functional” in the hierarchy of agronomic needs. They are also highly commoditized at the retail level, partly because they are widely accepted.