The industry standards for biostimulants urgently need improvement.

In recent years, biostimulant products represented by humic acid, alginic acid, amino acids, chitosan, and fish protein are gradually moving from Europe and America to China. Their promotion and application in the domestic market are becoming increasingly mature, and they are gradually being recognized and accepted by more and more growers. Data shows that the biostimulant market is growing steadily at a rate of over 10% per year. Such products have attracted the attention of international agricultural chemical industry giants and have become a blue ocean for domestic agricultural input production enterprises to compete for. However, issues such as unclear identity definition, uneven product quality, and lack of industry norms and standards still exist. Recently, the China Biostimulant Development Alliance and the Chemical Sub-Council of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade held the 2017 International Biostimulant and Fertilizer Efficiency (Value-Added) Application Forum in Shanghai, where experts, scholars, and entrepreneurs discussed various aspects of biostimulants.
No clear definition yet, multiple effects have been recognized.
What are biostimulants? In fact, there is currently no clear and unified definition in China. In reality, biostimulants are referred to by various names: plant growth promoters, bioactive agents, soil conditioners, growth regulators... "In fact, these names only reflect one aspect of the efficacy of biostimulants and cannot accurately define them," said Dr. Shang Zhaocong, deputy director of the National Fertilizer and Soil Conditioner Standardization Committee. Biostimulants mainly include eight categories: humic acid, complex organic materials, beneficial chemical elements, inorganic salts (including phosphites), algal extracts, chitosan and chitosan derivatives, anti-transpiration agents, free amino acids, and other nitrogen-containing substances.
With the proposal of the zero growth action plan for pesticide and fertilizer usage and the continuous improvement of consumer demand for agricultural product quality, biostimulants that are naturally sourced and have the effect of improving crop yield and quality perfectly meet the needs of the times. Although there is a lack of clear definition, the multiple effects of biostimulants have been proven over years of promotion and application.
Professor Chen Qing from the College of Resources and Environment at China Agricultural University stated that for a long time, issues such as intensive cultivation, high cropping index, and single crop types have led to increasing obstacles for continuous cropping. Agricultural production has long relied on chemical fertilizers, and blind fertilization has caused problems such as soil acidification, salinization, and biological barriers in the soil, thereby inhibiting the growth of crop roots and reducing their ability to absorb nutrients, which in turn affects crop growth and development. "The root-promoting and stress-resistance effects of biostimulants can improve the effectiveness of nutrients and water, promote the absorption, transport, and utilization of crop nutrients, enhance their disease resistance, improve the utilization rate of pesticides and fertilizers, and enhance the quality attributes of agricultural products."
Shaojiahua, executive vice president of the China Biostimulant Development Alliance, also holds a similar view, stating that "biostimulants can effectively enhance nitrogen fixation, phosphorus solubilization, and potassium retention, supplementing the deficiencies of microelements, improving the utilization rates of fertilizers and pesticides, ameliorating and restoring soil, enhancing crop resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses, promoting crop growth, and increasing yield and quality." Experimental data shows that the yield increase of crops using biostimulants is at least 5% to 10%, with fertilizer utilization rates increasing by at least 5%, and pesticide usage being reduced by 5% to 10%.
"Although biostimulants are a new concept in global agriculture, products such as humic acid, seaweed fertilizers, and amino acids, which belong to biostimulants, have long been used as efficiency enhancers for new fertilizers or compound fertilizers, achieving significant results in agricultural production," summarized Ma Chunyan, vice president of the Chemical Industry Sub-Council of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade. "Biostimulants have a magical effect of 'using a little to achieve a lot' in helping crops increase yield and improve quality."
Annual growth rate exceeds 10%, China may become the largest application market.
According to John Hren, global agricultural business director of Mineral Technologies Inc. (MTI), the global sales of the biostimulant market reached $1.3 billion in 2014, growing at a rate of over 12% per year. Although the data provided by Chen Li, director of the China Fertilizer Information Center, differs slightly, the difference is not significant. She said, "Currently, the global market size for biostimulants is about $1.4 billion, and it is expected to reach $2 to $3 billion by 2020, with an annual growth rate of over 10%."
According to estimates from industry experts, biostimulants occupy about 9% of the global agricultural chemical market share. The application rate of biostimulants in developing countries is showing significant growth, and there is huge market growth potential. According to Chen Li, "Currently, the market sales of biostimulants in China are about $200 million, accounting for only 2.3% of the agricultural chemical market share. In the next three to four years, the market value of biostimulants in China is expected to reach $400 to $500 million, and China is very likely to become the largest market for biostimulant applications in the future."
"In recent years, biostimulants have become a battleground for agricultural chemical companies and even fertilizer companies to compete for," said Liu Fulin, general manager of Zhengzhou Xinlian Biochemical Technology Co., Ltd. "The continuous expansion of the biostimulant market is inseparable from the changes in the agricultural environment, the increasing consumer demand for agricultural product quality, the rapid development of organic agriculture, and the governance of the agricultural ecological environment, all of which provide opportunities for the development of biostimulants."
Ma Chunyan also believes that as people's living standards improve, there is a need for more high-quality products, which has led to organic agriculture gaining more favor. Biostimulants, due to their organic origins and non-toxic nature to the environment, are seen as a boon for organic agriculture. "Especially after the Ministry of Agriculture proposed the 'Zero Growth Action Plan for Fertilizer and Pesticide Usage by 2020' in 2015, biostimulant products have become the darling of major manufacturers competing to develop and stake their claims."
Shaojiahua expressed concern, pointing out that chemical fertilizers have made significant contributions to China's agricultural development over the past 30 years, but issues such as excessive fertilizer application and imbalanced fertilizer structure have led to increasingly serious problems like soil acidification and nutrient imbalance. Today, the fertilization level of China's arable land is more than four times the world average, which not only threatens food safety and pollutes the soil environment but also causes huge resource waste. "Biostimulants can contribute to improving and restoring soil and enhancing the efficiency and value of chemical fertilizers."
Product quality is uneven, and industry regulations and standards urgently need improvement.
Initially, the biostimulant industry was mainly composed of small and medium-sized enterprises. In the past two years, agricultural chemical giants such as BASF, Syngenta, and Monsanto have also begun to launch related products. Data shows that there are currently about 500 biostimulant production enterprises globally, with more than 50 in China, mostly small and medium-sized enterprises.
Ma Chunyan candidly stated, "The mechanisms of action of active substances in biostimulants still require further in-depth research. At the same time, the uneven development of biostimulant products and the lack of industry norms and standards are also real issues facing these products, which are also the direction and tasks for our industry's future work."
The lack of scientific research on the mechanisms of action of biostimulants has created challenges for the registration management and market supervision of biostimulants. Currently, many countries in the world still do not have unified standards for biostimulants, especially in product registration, where the requirements and practices vary from country to country. In China, biostimulants are often registered under the category of organic water-soluble fertilizers rather than as a new category.
"The development of biostimulants is rapid, but they are neither fertilizers nor plant protection agents. Different countries regulate them under different systems, lacking a sound and unified legal framework." Shang Zhaocong stated that only by quickly clarifying the definition of biostimulants and establishing a unified and complete registration system can better regulation of biostimulants be achieved. He suggested that biostimulants in China should be classified under fertilizer management, and that biostimulants must focus on functionality and effectiveness, with product promotion and positioning distinctly different from traditional fertilizers, addressing issues that fertilizers and pesticides cannot solve. According to him, through research on EU biostimulant standards, China is currently formulating recommended national standards for biostimulants.
Chen Shaorong, chief scientist of the China Biostimulant Development Alliance, pointed out that the fundamental way to develop and enhance China's biostimulant industry lies in moving towards multifunctionality, applying various biostimulant raw materials or simple processed products through specific production processes for compounding and innovation, increasing product functionality, and improving the technological content and cost-effectiveness of products to solve some problems that restrict high yield and quality of crops and respond to biotic and abiotic stresses. "High-tech multifunctional biostimulant products will undoubtedly become high-tech in the field of fertilizers in China and will play an increasingly important role in promoting zero growth in the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides."