Renewed Biofertilizer Adoption Strengthens as Sustainability Incentives and Smart Tech Align
March 3, 2026 As food production companies such as PepsiCo and General Mills invest in regenerative agriculture for their growers, the practice of incorporating biofertilizers into programs is increasing.
In late 2025, PepsiCo committed more than $216 million to regenerative agriculture to achieve this farming practice across 10 million acres of U.S. land by 2030. General Mills is also investing to have regenerative agriculture on 1 million acres of U.S. land by 2030.
These investments and other factors, like growers understanding the value of soil health, are increasing adoption of biofertilizer as shown during the 2025 growing season. Furthermore, this shift is expected to continue into 2026’s growing season as well, says Greg Sanford, Vice President of Sales, Midwest at Verdesian Life Sciences.
“What we’re seeing in 2026 is really an evolution rather than a complete shift,” says Sanford. “The biggest driver continues to be grower demand for better nutrient efficiency and more resilient cropping systems, especially as input costs remain volatile. Increasingly, growers are paying close attention to everything they put on an acre and how those decisions impact long-term soil health.”
Trey Cutts, Vice President of Commercial Agriculture Science at Tidal Grow AgriScience, agrees with growers becoming more familiar with the proven immediate and long-term investment value of biofertilizers.
“Biofertilizers are increasingly viewed as performance-enhancing components of integrated fertility programs,” says Cutts. “Additionally, advances in formulation technology, stability, and compatibility with conventional fertilizers have accelerated adoption across mainstream production systems.”
Jessica Link, Agronomist at The Andersons, also sees more excitement when it comes to using biofertilizers, especially with the company’s two entries in the market, Biopass and Biopass LG. Formulated for corn and soybeans, respectively, Biopass and Biopass LG work to increase the nutrients available to plants.
“They start doing their job within the soil, and that’s when they start doubling in populations every 45 to 60 minutes,” says Link. “We also have a lot of beneficial microbes included in each formulation.”
The 2026 Outlook
Looking more closely at this year’s growing season and the prospects for biofertilizers, Sanford foresees both positives that could drive demand and negatives that could depress it. On the positive side, he lists such variables as fertilizer price volatility, sustainability incentives, and pressure to improve nutrient efficiency all favoring biological solutions.
On the negative side, he believes that weather extremes could challenge biofertilizer usage this year.
“Biological performance is closely tied to soil and environmental conditions,” says Sanford. “This makes education, proper placement, and management more important than ever.”
Another company focused on the biofertilizer sector is Loveland Products Inc. In 2025, the company introduced a new product called N-Finity.
“N-Finity is a first of its kind biological solution designed to supplement the soil’s ability to access nitrogen,” says Ron Calhoun, Senior Portfolio Marketing Manager for Plant Nutrition. “N-Finity has three modes of action — direct fixation of atmospheric soil nitrogen through the application of nitrogen fixing isolates, recruitment of additional N-fixer to the rootzone, and liberation of stored soil organic nitrogen.”
Smart Tech Analysis
Another overall agricultural trend to keep an eye on for the biofertilizer sector, says Kuide Qin, Chief Science Officer at Verdesian Life Sciences, is the adoption of new technologies such as Smart Tech and how these might impact the marketplace.
“One key area to watch is the integration of precision agriculture and real-time soil and tissue analysis tools,” says Qin. “Pairing biofertilizer products with digital decision tools and sensors will enable optimized placement and timing that improve performance predictability.”
Tidal Grow’s Cutts also thinks new ag technologies bear watching, but for a slightly different reason.
“Global supply chain uncertainty and geopolitical instability continue to influence fertilizer availability and pricing, which can either accelerate adoption or slow purchasing decisions depending on timing,” he says. “Overall, these pressures tend to favor technologies that improve efficiency and flexibility, positioning biofertilizers as strategic tools rather than optional inputs.”
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