Rooted in Progress: How 25 Years of Strategic Growth Position BASF for Agriculture’s Next Frontier
Editor’s Note: As we mark the first 25 years of the 21st century, CropLife reflects on the innovations, challenges, and transformations that have shaped ag retail — honoring our past while looking ahead to agriculture’s promising future. In this article, we spotlight BASF’s journey over the past quarter-century and explore what lies ahead for the German-based industry leader.
For BASF, the past 25 years has been characterized by an almost methodical drive to expand in agriculture. This has been accomplished through a series of acquisitions and market innovations.
This started almost immediately for the company as the new millennium began. In July 2000, BASF formally acquired the agricultural business of American Cyanamid. Valued at the time at $1.7 billion, this acquisition eventually doubled BASF’s market sales to $3.6 billion, making it one of the top three agricultural companies in the world at the time.
A few years later in the early 2000s, BASF would introduce the industry to one of its signature products – Headline. This fungicide quickly began a mainstay for corn growers across the U.S., with sales of the brand reaching more than $1 billion by 2007.
“Headline has caught on like wildfire,” said Michael Heinz, then President of BASF’s Agricultural Products Division to CropLife in a 2007 interview. “Growers already use Headline with F500 on more than 7.4 acres of corn and are raising the yield and quantity of their crops with this investment.”
A few years later in 2012, BASF again grew through acquisition by buying Becker Underwood. Based in Ames, IA, Becker Underwood specialized in the development of seed-applied biological products for agriculture.
In 2017, BASF once more worked on expanding its core product line through acquisition. As part of its acquisition of Monsanto, Bayer was required by regulators to divest certain brands from its portfolio. This included glufosinate-ammonium non-selective herbicide business, commercialized under the Liberty, Basta, and Finale brands, as well as its seed businesses for row crops in select markets: Canola hybrids in North America under the InVigor brand using the LibertyLink trait technology, oilseed rape in European markets, cotton in the Americas and Europe as well as soybean in the Americas. BASF completed this acquisition in early 2018.
Planning for the Future
Today, in 2025, BASF is gearing up for the future with multiple market innovations. In June 2024, the company announced a new seed trait to combat soybean cyst nematode (SCN). Called Nemasphere, the company claims this will be the first and only biotechnology trait for SCN in the U.S. In the Nemasphere plants, said BASF, the Cry14 protein is present. When this is ingested by nematodes, it interferes with the nutrient uptake in the intestines, eventually leading to death.
BASF anticipates gaining regulatory approval for Nemasphere by 2028.
More recently, in mid-2025, BASF announced its plans for a new seed innovation for canola. Called InVigor Gold, this variety of Brassica juncea shows outstanding heat tolerance, allowing growers to utilize land that may have been fallow or idle, said Bryan Perry, Head of U.S. Seeds and Traits.
“InVigor Gold will unlock the full genetic potential of canola in new areas and help farmers improve yield performance through better tolerance to heat as compared to traditional canola hybrids,” said Perry.
BASF is hopefully InVigor Gold will gain regulatory approval and be available in the U.S. between 2027 and 2029.
“When I look at today’s business, I see opportunity going forward,” said Paul Rea, Senior Vice President, Agricultural Solutions, North America, of the company’s future. “Farmers are getting very good at planning ahead to keep increasing their crop yields. We think there are a lot of good innovations from us that will drive the marketplace and propel us forward.”
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