Global CRISPR in Agriculture Market 2022-2028

Global CRISPR in Agriculture Market 2022-2028

CRISPR stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, used to edit DNA of an organism or a crop. It can pave a way ahead for technology to develop modified crops to increase crop production and quality. Additionally, it finds a significant scope for livestock and aquaculture. The global CRISPR market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 25.3% during the forecast period. The major factor augmenting the CRISPR in the agriculture market is a growing number of research activities that are supported by public and private funding. Research programs have been supporting the market as the technology adoption is in the nascent stage and the research is boosting the adoption of products modified genetically. According to the Federation of American Scientists, around $1.1 billion of funding had been recorded from the National Institute of Health (NIH) for CRISPR technology in 2021. It has increased from just $5 million in 2011 to $85 million in 2014. Moreover, private companies are investing considerably in the market including BASF SE, Benson Hill Biosystems, Inc., DowDuPont, Inc., and so on.

Another major factor driving the market is its advantage over its alternatives technologies such as Transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALEN) and zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs). The effect of TALENs takes more time to create and can be more expensive. CRISPR offers versatility and has higher expected cleavage efficiency than TALENs. Moreover, as compared to ZFNs and TALENs technologies, it shows the highest efficiency. Another factor augmenting the market is the growing demand for food security globally. As per the United Nations, the estimated global population is more than 7.5 billion which in 2021 is expected to reach 9.8 billion in 2050. The growth in the population will cause a significant demand for food resources. Moreover, the current global climate change will create a negative impact on natural ecosystems and will have environmental stress on agricultural productivity. Due to this, new plant breeding technologies such as gene editing can create a major difference in global food security.

A major restraint to the market is an inadequate regulatory framework. Till now, no country internationally agreed-upon regulatory framework for gene editing. Various countries in the European Union have completely restricted the cultivation of GE crops in their territories or have a set of rules on the trade of GE seeds. The regulations like this can hinder investment in crop research using such new tools in the EU.

The global CRISPR in the agriculture market is segmented into the end-user and target type. Based on end-user, the market is classified into academic research institutes and biotech companies. Academic & Research Institutes are expected to hold the major share. Significant investment by the government and research institute is providing the major share to the segment.

Based on the target type, the market is further segmented into crops, livestock, and aquaculture. Several companies are adopting CRISPR technology to boost plant productivity. Due to this, the crop segment is estimated to have around three-quarter market during the forecast period. The crop segment is estimated to grow at the fastest CAGR of 26.1% during the forecast period. With the growing demand for food security, the demand for genome editing tools has been significantly increased to improve crop yield. Genome editing tools is considered as an advanced biotechnological method that allows accurate and efficient targeted modification of an organism’s genome. It can be implemented on a wide range of plant species to improve agricultural traits and characterize gene functions. CRISPR-Cas 9 is a recent genome editing technology that is gaining significant importance as it is a faster, accurate, efficient and cost-effective method than other genome editing methods. For instance, Yield10 Bioscience, Inc. develops crops with the use of CRISPR and is optimistic that gene editing will be more socially accepted as compared to transgenic genetically modified organisms (GMOs) as it is more precise, reliable and relatively cost-effective and substantially accelerate plant breeding.

The market is further analyzed on the basis of geography and segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World (RoW). North America is expected to hold a major market share. The major factor for the growth of the market in the region is the substantial number and amount of funding for CRISPR technology in the US and Canada. As per the Federation of American Scientists, CRISPR-related scientific publications have been increased from 7 in 2011 to 161 in 2014 and have exponentially increased to 2,651 in 2021. Moreover, the presence of major market players in the US is supporting the dominance of North America in the market by investing a significant amount in R&D activities.

The major companies using CRISPR technology in the agriculture sector include Bayer AG, BASF SE, E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Co., Yield10 Bioscience, Inc., Cibus Ltd., among others. These companies are expanding their agricultural product base by introducing gene modification technology for various crops. This is achieved by procuring license agreements from CRISPR technology providers. For instance, in October 2017, DuPont Pioneer (the agricultural division of E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company) entered a non-exclusive global licensing agreement with the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard for CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology in agriculture. The Broad Institute is engaged in the development of CRISPR-Cas technology and holds multiple issued US patents related to CRISPR-Cas technology. DuPont Pioneer is on track for commercialization of the next generation of waxy corn products by 2021, which is developed with the application of CRISPR-Cas enabled advanced breeding technology. This technology will complement DuPont’s ongoing technology toolbox that they are deploying for the development of products for providing benefits to consumers and farmers. The company is further committed to collaborating with research centers to achieve the complete potential of CRISPR technology in the agriculture sector.