Upstream Ag Professional - February 8th 2026

Welcome to the 130th edition of Upstream Ag Professional

Index

1. Upstream Ag Foundations Series

2. Upstream Ag Insights GenAi in Agribusiness Report: How are Industry Professionals Using Artificial Intelligence?

3. Crop Protection and Seed Company Changing Dynamics

4. FY 2025 Agribusiness Results: Corteva, FMC and UPL Highlights and Analysis - Upstream Ag Professional

5. NewLeaf Expands Broad-Acting TS201 Bioinsecticide Coverage for Corn, Soy, Cotton and Rice

6. Quick Hits (9 this week)

7. Built to Own

8. Other Interesting Ag Articles (11 this week)

Thank you for being an Upstream Ag Professional member!

This week’s audio edition can be found here and covers the following:

1. Agribusiness Results: A look at Corteva and FMC News

2. Upstream Ag Insights GenAi in Agribusiness Report: How are Industry Professionals Using Artificial Intelligence?

1. Upstream Ag Foundations Series 

I often get asked “Where do I start?” by new Professional members.

The answer of course depends on interests, but I have pieced together twenty-two of the more popular, and more foundational, evergreen articles published within Upstream (aka not company analysis or news). The topics cover baseline frameworks, industry structure and concepts that help understand where agribusiness is today and where it might go in the future, spanning topics from precision spraying, ag retail evolution, crop protection trends, biological baselines, strategy fundamentals, agribusiness software and mental models that every agribusiness professional should be aware of.

Plus, you can always access AskUpstream, the purpose built LLM for agribusiness professionals. It allows you to interact with the Upstream Ag Insights archive in a dynamic and engaging way, enabling you to find the topics and concepts crucial to optimizing your understanding of the agriculture industry.

2. Upstream Ag Insights GenAi in Agribusiness Report: How are Industry Professionals Using Artificial Intelligence?

Index

1. Introduction

2. Key Takeaways

3. Are Agribusinesses Encouraging AI Usage?

4. How Agribusiness Professionals Are Actually Using AI

5. What are the biggest downsides or frustrations you experience with current AI tools?

6. What tools are most commonly used by Agribusiness Professionals?

7. What Tasks Do You Wish AI Could Handle But Currently Does Poorly?

8. What Is Your #1 Expectation from Agricultural Software Providers Regarding AI?

9. How Would You Rate the AI Training Provided by Your Organization?

10. Is Your Organization Currently Building Its Own Internal AI Tools?

11. How Trusting Would You Be to Let an AI Agent Execute a Transaction Without Your Final Approval?

12. Which Agribusiness Activity Will Always Require a Human, No Matter How Good AI Gets?

13. What fears do you have surrounding artificial intelligence in agriculture?

14. What opportunities do you see AI creating in agriculture?

15. What This All Means

16. About the Survey and the Survey Takers

Key Takeaways

• 80% of respondents at companies that are 500+ people stated that usage of AI tools was encouraged.

  • If a respondent worked at a company where AI usage was encouraged they were 2x as likely to use AI tools multiple times per day.

  • Respondents that worked at a company where AI was encouraged often felt AI saved them even more time per week on average. They were most likely to say that they saved over 8 hours per week.

• 65% of GenAI users reported saving 3+ hours per week, with 30% saving 5+ hours. 17% said they feel that AI tools save them 8 hours or more per week. Marketing/Communications professionals reported the highest gains of any job-type cohort.

  

• Over 50% of respondents are using GenAi tools multiple times per day.

• 86% of users suggest the quality of their work improves with AI tool usage.

• 50% of respondents said they paid for AI tools out of their own pocket.

• 57% used only one GenAI tool, while 23% used two and 20% used 3 or more.

• Those who pay for AI out-of-pocket use coding tools at 10x the rate of non-payers, such as Claude Code, Replit or Loveable.

• Those that had access to company provided training were much more likely to use AI multiple times per day and save more time than their counterparts without AI training. 55% of those with advanced training save 5+ hours per week, compared to just 18% of those with no training. 80% of those with advanced training use AI multiple times daily, compared to just 35% of those with no training. 61% of those with advanced training report significantly better quality vs. 27% with no training.

• The biggest fear with AI is system accuracy. 68% cite hallucinations/inaccuracy as their top concern, far exceeding job displacement (18%).

• Agentic AI adoption remains cautious. Only 11% fully trust AI to execute transactions autonomously. 60% will only trust it for small, low-stakes tasks.

• 65% of companies with 1,000+ employees are building proprietary AI tools, compared to just 13% of solo/small businesses.

The full report can be found at the link in the heading with deeper analysis, images and more data.

3. A Guide to the Restructuring Wave Reshaping Crop Protection and Seed - Upstream Ag Professional

There are more moving parts in the crop protection and seed industry right now than at any point since the 2015–2018 merger wave.

FMC announced this week that it is exploring a full sale, or sale of some of it’s assets.

Corteva is splitting into separate crop protection and seed entities.

BASF is preparing a spin-off IPO for it’s crop inputs business.

Syngenta is taking another run at going public in Hong Kong.

Bayer is managing it’s litigation challenges and restructuring Crop Science.

UPL is managing debt and looking to spin off its seed segment (Advanta).

Nufarm ran into challenges with their seed segment after a drop in fish-oil prices that challenged revenues, margins and outlook.

Each of these dynamics is relatively new, occurring for various, sometimes related reasons, such as structural market dynamics in crop protection, debt, public market incentives or litigation/regulatory. While each effort carries different risks and challenges to manage, they all affect one another

For example, a buyer for FMC is likely looking at what Corteva's crop protection business could traded at post-split to calibrate value, or on the flip side, Corteva could consider buying FMC.

Because there's so much happening in parallel, I wanted to put together a brief overview of where each company is currently, including what they're doing, why they're doing it, and what the key dynamics are within each business.

For the full overview of each, check out the link in the heading.

4. FY 2025 Agribusiness Results: Corteva, FMC and UPL Highlights and Analysis - Upstream Ag Professional

Corteva Highlights

• Corteva posted strong full-year results, cracking 22% EBITDA margins.

• Seed Revenue grew with gains in every region, led by corn at $7 billion (+9% organic). Corteva gained share in both corn and soybean. Order books heading into 2026 were stated as "very strong."

• Crop Protection Revenue grew despite challenging pricing dynamics in the market, particularly in Latin America where price declined 2%. Volume was up 5%, driven by new product demand and double-digit biologicals growth. Herbicides (+4%) and fungicides (+7%) led product categories. Biologicals reached $519 million with strong volume, but challenges pricing, reinforcing intensifying competition in Brazil. The portfolio is now roughly two-thirds differentiated products.

• Corteva paid $610 million to resolve all patent litigation with Bayer, which is a win for Corteva and gaining them quicker access to corn trait licensing, faster market entry for next-gen insect traits, and access to the cotton trait market. Management expects roughly $1 billion in aggregate earnings over the next decade from the deal, with royalty neutrality potentially arriving this year rather than 2028.

• Separation of Seed and Crop Protection is set for Q4 2026, with a new Corteva CEO and managements teams to be named by end of Q2.

UPL Highlights

• UPL Q3 results had revenue up 12% yoy, driven by 8% volume growth. EBITDA grew 13% to $271 million, though margins held flat at 19.8% as higher SG&A spending (up 21%) partially offset gains.

• The core crop protection business grew revenue 8%, with growth across all regions. Europe led at +17%, followed by Rest of World (+13%), Latin America (+6%), and North America (+3%).

• Advanta (seeds) grew revenue and EBITDA by 22%, driven by 14% volume gains and 7% pricing improvement. A potential public listing is in the works following DRHP filing in January 2026. The company has now posted five consecutive quarters of bottom-line growth while expanding market share.

FMC Highlights

• FMC had a rough year and is now exploring strategic options including a potential sale of the company (more on this below).

• Full-year revenue fell 18% (down 8% excluding the India divestiture), with adjusted EBITDA declining 7% to $843 million. The core problem remains Rynaxypyr and the core business, facing accelerating generic pressure with mid-single-digit price declines and a COGS position that makes it challenging to compete without cratering margins.

• The bright spot is FMC's new active ingredient portfolio, which grew 54% to ~$200 million and is targeted at $300–$400 million in 2026. But new products are scaling slower than the diamide business is eroding.

• In 2023, short seller Blue Orca shared a short sale report on FMC. In the full write-up I look at what Blue Orca got right.

Strategic Review / Potential Sale

The Board of Directors has authorized exploration of strategic options, including but not limited to the sale of the company, to:

• Unlock shareholder value

• Ensure growth and core portfolios are positioned for long-term success

• Enable additional investment in their four new active ingredients and pipeline

The company notes the review is at a "preliminary stage" with no guarantee a transaction occurs.

Why Now?

Subscribe to Upstream Ag Professional to read the rest.