Agricultural Adjuvants Market by Function (Activator, Utility), Application (Herbicide, Insecticide, Fungicide), Formulation (Suspension and Emulsifiable Concentrates), Adoption Stage (Tank-Mix, In-Formulation), and Crop Type - Global Forecast to 2027

The Agricultural Adjuvants Market is expected to reach $4.7 billion by 2027, at a CAGR of 5.7% during the forecast period of 2020 to 2027. In terms of volume, the global agricultural adjuvants market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.3% from 2020 to 2027 to reach 440.1 KT by 2027. Growing food demand and shrinking arable land, increasing demand for agrochemicals, increasing adoption of precision farming methods, and growing need to limit pesticide wastage are the key factors driving the growth of the agricultural adjuvants market. In addition, the factors such as rising use of adjuvants for biological products, growing consumer preference for environment-friendly agricultural adjuvants, and drift potential of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with adjuvants in aerial applications provides significant growth opportunities for manufacturers operating in the agricultural adjuvants market.

Impact of COVID-19 on the Agricultural Adjuvants Market

COVID-19 pandemic has adversely hit many economies around the world. The combat measures like complete lockdown and quarantine to fight COVID-19 have put strong adverse impact on many industries across the globe including a portion of agriculture industry such as crop protection chemicals and other additives. Over a couple of months, this crisis has had a direct impact on the agricultural adjuvants development rates as the chemical manufacturing units in many countries have been disrupted. On a global level, as the governments shut down national and international borders and economies for controlling the spread of the coronavirus, the businesses observed major impacts on their international trades. In agriculture sector, the agricultural crop protection chemicals and adjuvants market have registered a strong slowdown in the sales in the first quarter of 2020 due to the disturbance in logistics and transportation. Along with logistics and transportation, the agrochemicals and agricultural adjuvants market has registered interruptions in the entire value chain of the sector from raw materials supply, to manufacturing, packaging, and distribution. This is, however, causing an imbalance between the demand and supply quantities on a large scale. Some regions are completely dependent on imports and are facing tough situations.

Adjuvants are majorly dependent on raw materials such as vegetable oils and petroleum for their production. In addition, the turbulences in the regular supply chain have caused the companies to create new supply chains that are more expensive and takes a lot more time to satisfy the need for catalysts in different areas of the chemical industry, seeing an unprecedented degree of activity associated with biotechnology. All these factors hampered the potential growth of the agricultural adjuvants market at the beginning of 2020. While the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has acknowledged that the spread of COVID- 19 pandemic is sinking in a few countries and regions of the world. Still, it is also resurging or spreading quickly in some other countries such as the U.S., Korea, Brazil, and India, showcasing the further slowdown in the growth of market over the period.

                                                  Click here to: Get Free Sample Pages of this Report

Growing Need to Limit Pesticide Wastage Fuels the Growth of the Agricultural Adjuvants Market

In recent years, people have been exposed to several types of substances with broad spectrum due to the rapidly evolving technology. One of these chemical substance groups are pesticides that includes insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, and other agents. Pesticides have been an essential part of agriculture to protect crops from pest infestations and yield reduction for many decades, and it's use for crop protection is further expected to increase based on a rapidly growing global population and the need for more food supplies. The importance of agricultural pesticides for developing countries is undeniable. Despite their usefulness, pesticides could pose potential risks to food safety, the environment, and all other living things.

Moreover, surface tension, volatilization, compatibility, solubility, stability, foaming, suspension, droplet size, drift, coverage area, adherence, penetration and many other factors cause huge loss of pesticides even with its direct application on the targeted areas. Inappropriate use of pesticides can impact negatively on the environment and human. Despite the advanced technologies in the pesticidal applications, there are still some cases of environmental contamination, such as inappropriate residues disposal or spray drift occurrence during applications. Thus, the use of adjuvants in pesticide spray mixture becomes more essential to enhance performance and the physical properties of the spray mixture. They go through multiple functions, such as enhancing the wettability of the crop protection chemical, ensuring its uniform spread on the leaves, increasing penetration in the case of systemic crop protection chemicals, and increasing its compatibility with foliar fertilizer sprays, among others. Agricultural adjuvants minimize or eliminate issues, such as incompatibility, instability, foaming, drift, evaporation, volatilization, degradation, adherence, penetration, surface tension, and coverage. Also, they perform functions such as wetting, sticking, spreading, emulsifying, buffering, and dispersing. They may also have some positive effects on managing water hardness as well. All these factors help in increasing the penetration rate of the pesticidal products into plants and insect pests with minimal wastage.

Therefore, factors such as growing need to limit pesticide wastages and ability of agricultural adjuvants to enhance penetration rate of pesticides into plants and insects are expected to drive the growth of the agricultural adjuvants market across the globe.

Key Findings in the Global Agricultural Adjuvants Market Study:

Activator adjuvants to witness the largest demand through 2027

Based on function, the activator adjuvants segment is estimated to command the largest share of the overall agricultural adjuvants market in 2020. The segment is also expected to witness rapid growth during the forecast period. The largest share and the fastest growth of the activator adjuvants segment is mainly due to its high demand across the globe because of its ability to reduce surface tension to increase contact area as well as to rain fastness and increase solubilization and spray retention.

Herbicide application to grow with the fastest CAGR during the forecast period

Based on application, the herbicide application segment is estimated to command the dominant share of the overall agricultural adjuvants market in 2020. The segment is also expected to witness a rapid growth during the forecast period. The largest share and the fastest growth of this segment are primarily attributed to the huge demand for herbicidal products to protect crop failure due to weeds and to increase agricultural production across the globe. Moreover, the factors such as decreasing availability of labor and consequent rise in cost of the laborers as well as shortage of arable lands are also enhancing the demand for herbicidal products, globally. Additionally, the global acceptance of better agricultural practices as well as integrated pest management technologies is further anticipated to increase the use of adjuvants in herbicidal crop protection products.

Suspension concentrate adjuvants preferred over emulsifiable concentrate adjuvants

Based on formulation, the suspension concentrate segment is estimated to command the dominant share of the overall agricultural adjuvants market in 2020, which is mainly attributed to its growing demand due to wide range of benefits such as absence of dust and small particle size of the active ingredients that minimizes the environment risks; ease of use; and high effectiveness.

In-formulation to grow with the fastest CAGR during the forecast period

Based on adoption stage, the in-formulation segment is expected to grow with the fastest CAGR during the forecast period. The fast growth of this segment is primarily attributed to the growing consumer preference for agrochemicals, which have direct application on the crops and do not require any separate addition of chemicals.

Cereals and grains to dominate the overall agricultural adjuvants market in 2020

Based on crop type, the cereals and grains segment is estimated to command the dominant share of the overall agricultural adjuvants market in 2020. The dominant position of this segment is mainly attributed to the growing demand for cereals and grains with rapidly growing population; huge area under cereals and grains cultivation worldwide; and increase in the demand for crop protection chemicals to protect cereals and grains crops from insect pests and infectious diseases, thereby subsequently increasing the demand for agricultural adjuvants.

North America to dominate the global agricultural adjuvants market in 2020

Geographically, North America region is estimated to command the largest share of the global agricultural adjuvants market in 2020, followed by Asia Pacific and Europe. The major share of this region is mainly attributed to the factors such as continuous reduction in the arable land, rapidly growing population, and increase in demand for standard quality food. Moreover, the factors such as changing agricultural practices, shortages of the agricultural labors, increasing intensification including precision agriculture, high rate of adoption of advanced farming technologies, growing recognition of the environmental impact of agriculture, and growing interest in sustainable production systems are further expected to support the growth of this market in this region. However, the Asia Pacific region is projected to grow at a significant pace in the next few years.

Key Players

The report includes competitive landscape based on an extensive assessment of the key strategic developments adopted by the leading market participants in the global agricultural adjuvants market over last four years (2017-2020). The key players operating in the global agricultural adjuvants market are BASF SE (Germany), Nutrien Ltd. (Canada), Evonik Industries AG. (Germany), Solvay S.A. (Belgium), Nufarm Limited (Australia), Helena Agri-Enterprises LLC (U.S.), Nouryon (The Netherlands), Stepan Company (U.S.), Croda International Plc (U.K.), Brandt Consolidated, Inc. (U.S.), Wilbur-Ellis Holdings, Inc. (U.S.), INNVICTIS Crop Care, LLC (U.S.), Miller Chemical & Fertilizer, LLC. (U.S.), KALO, Inc. (U.S.), Corteva Agriscience Inc. (U.S.), and Precision Laboratories Inc (U.S.) among others.

Scope of the report:

Agricultural Adjuvants Market, by Function

• Activator Adjuvants
  • Surfactants
  • Oil Adjuvants
• Utility Adjuvants
  • Compatibility Agents
  • Buffers/Acidifiers
  • Antifoam Agents
  • Water Conditioning Agents
  • Drift Control Agents
  • Other

Agricultural Adjuvants Market, by Application

• Herbicides
• Insecticides
• Fungicides
• Other

Agricultural Adjuvants Market, by Formulation

• Suspension Concentrate
• Emulsifiable Concentrate

Agricultural Adjuvants Market, by Adoption Stage

• Tank-Mix
• In-Formulation

Agricultural Adjuvants Market, by Crop Type

• Cereals and Grains
  • Maize
  • Rice
  • Wheat
  • Other Cereals and Grains
• Fruits and Vegetables
• Oilseeds and Pulses
• Other Crops

Agricultural Adjuvants Market, by Geography

• North America
  • U.S.
  • Canada
• Europe
  • France
  • Germany
  • Spain
  • Italy
  • Ukraine
  • U.K.
  • Rest of Europe
• Asia-Pacific (APAC)
  • China
  • India
  • Australia
  • Japan
  • Malaysia
  • RoAPAC
• Latin America
  • Brazil
  • Argentina
  • Mexico
  • RoLATAM
• Middle East and Africa

Key questions answered in the report: