Upstream Ag Professional - March 8th 2026

Welcome to the 134th edition of Upstream Ag Professional

Index

1. Upstream Ag Insights Patent Analysis: Bio Related Innovation by Crop Protection Companies

2. 2025 Bayer Crop Science Results Highlights and Analysis

3. With crop protection at a crossroads, it’s time for big ag to embrace its big pharma moment + Fandom is Forever, Business Models Shouldn't Be

4. AGCO at Raymond James Investor Conference: PTx Trimble and North American Growth

5. Bindbridge raises $3.8m for targeted protein degradation platform for next-gen crop protection

6. DOJ Probes US Fertilizer Market for Possible Price Fixing

7. Ascribe Announces Collaboration with Corteva to Advance Seed Treatment Use for Phytalix® Biofungicide

8. The Middle East and Agribusiness Implications

9. Quick Hits (8 this week)

10. Costless Sacrifice

11. Other Interesting Ag Content (11 this week)

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

1. With crop protection at a crossroads, it’s time for big ag to embrace its big pharma moment

2. The Middle East and Agribusiness Implications

1. Upstream Ag Insights Patent Analysis: Bio Related Innovation by Crop Protection Companies

If you want to know where the crop protection industry is heading, press releases can be useful map.

Patents convey millions in R&D spending, years of development timelines, and legal declarations of where an innovation company believes future products and differentiation will come from.

For this breakdown, I reviewed recent patent filings from nine major crop protection companies, including: Corteva, Bayer, BASF, FMC, Syngenta, and UPL. I primarily focused on biologicals and integrated bio-chemical technologies.

Three patterns dominated the research and reviews.

1. The era of standalone biologicals is moving towards integrated bio-chemical formulations that combine the reliability farmers expect from conventional chemistry with the biological modes of action that are being increasingly demanded.

2. The formulation and delivery technology has become a primary effort. Part of this might be because within the biological realm, specifically on biostimulants, there is more effort to be “trade secret” rather than outright file for IP. Though, as I will publish in the next couple of weeks, Dunham Trimmer believes Single Biostimulant Molecules will become key points of differentiation in the future.

3. Several companies are filing patents that are focused on getting into entirely new segments, such as fermentation-produced pheromones at row-crop economics to nitrogen-fixing endophytes that colonize every part of the plant.

In the full edition, I overview key filings, what they protect, why they matter, and what they signal about future products and the strategic direction of the companies behind them. The five patents covered:

1. UPL: Integrated Pesticide + Biostimulant Formulations

2. BASF: Biopesticide + Nitrogen Stabilizer Combinations

3. BASF: Synergistic Biocontrol

4. FMC: Pheromone Biosynthesis

5. Syngenta: Precision Seed Treatment at Time of Planting

2. FY 2025 Bayer Crop Science Results Highlights and Analysis - Upstream Ag Professional

Highlights

• Bayer spent €2.0 billion on R&D in FY2025 vs €2.6 billion in FY2024 — a reported decline of 22.9%. A few important nuances on that though: That figure is reported after special items and depreciation/amortization/impairments. The 22.9% decline is driven by lower special charges in 2025 vs 2024, not a true reduction in underlying R&D investment. The €2.0 billion represents roughly 35% of Bayer's total group R&D expense of €5.8 billion (reported). On a percent of revenue basis it worked out to ~9.3% R&D on a reported basis.

• Sales of €21.6B, down 3%, but volume actually grew 1% — the headline decline is almost entirely currency drag, not underlying demand deterioration. EBITDA swung to a €1.6B loss (from +€4.0B in 2024), almost entirely explained by €5.8B in litigation charges hitting the 2025 line.

• Adjusted EBITDA before special items was a much more stable €4.2B at a flat 19.4% margin. 2026 margin guidance of 20–22%.

• Corn Seed & Traits up 13%, boosted by the one-time Corteva litigation settlement payment of $610M (~€300M booked in Q4); Soy and Cotton both down sharply (-8% and -23% respectively) due to dicamba label vacatur and expecting that to change next year.

• Glyphosate litigation provisions jumped from €7.8B to €11.8B, with a €5B cash outflow expected in 2026 alone — financed via an $8B bank loan with no equity raise planned.

• When asked whether Bayer has any interest in FMC assets, Rodrigo Santos effectively stated that they are going to prioritize their own innovation pipeline rather than look to others at this time. For more, see Who Acquires FMC?

For the full overview, including executive commentary, check out the link in the heading.

3. With crop protection at a crossroads, it’s time for big ag to embrace its big pharma moment - AFN

The article argues that crop protection companies are facing a structural innovation crisis similar to what the Pharma industry experienced ~15+ years ago because their model of controlling the full value chain from early discovery to commercialization was no longer viable. The commentary from individuals operating in the segment is for ag majors to de-prioritize early-stage discovery to smaller, more agile startups while doubling down on their genuine strengths: regulatory execution, manufacturing, and commercialization.

Overall, I think it’s a well done article — however, one thing that I think is worth noting is that commentary from the start-up executives within it suggests that crop protection companies are not attempting this already. I think there is some nuance there. I’m certain a significant percentage of senior executives at major crop protection companies would acknowledge the need to evolve how they think about allocating capital surrounding discovering and commercializing innovation, however, change is not always easy.

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