Plant biostimulants are defined by their function not their components, since the category includes a wide range of substances.
Under the Fertilising Products Regulation, the definition of a CE-marked plant biostimulant, which EBIC helped to define, is “a product which stimulates plant nutrition processes independently of the product’s nutrient content, with the sole aim of improving one or more of the following characteristics of the plant or the plant rhizosphere: nutrient use efficiency, tolerance to abiotic stress, quality traits, or the availability of confined nutrients in soil or rhizosphere.”
Biostimulant components include microorganisms, plant and algae extracts, amino acids, humic substances, mineral salts and some chemicals with biostimulant properties. Unlike fertilisers, which directly supply nutrients to plants, biostimulants stimulate the plant’s own processes to better utilise nutrients and water.
More and more people are talking about biostimulants and their contribution to food production. Our video explains to those who want to learn about biostimulants exactly what they are, how they can support farmers and the food supply chain and how they are registered on the EU market.
Biostimulants are increasingly recognised for their role in sustainable food systems. They support farmers and the food supply chain by enhancing crop yield and quality, improving nutrient use efficiency, and helping plants withstand environmental stress.
Global food security is a pressing issue influenced by climate change, geopolitical factors, and the availability and affordability of crop inputs for farmers. Plant biostimulants can significantly support food security by increasing crop yield, improving nutrient use efficiency and relieving plants from climate-related stress.
Among other beneficial effects, biostimulants can increase nutrient use efficiency so that farmers receive a better return on their fertiliser investment. This includes making use of nutrients in the soil that might not otherwise be available to plants, for example by solubilising phosphorus into plant-available forms. These nutrient-use improvements reduce nutrient losses and their related environmental impacts. The link between good nutrition and high yields is well established.
Biostimulants also help plants to better tolerate abiotic stresses such as drought, extreme temperatures, salinity, and flooding. Such harsh growing conditions can reduce yields as crops divert energy into stress responses. In the absence of biostimulants, stress may even kill the plant. By helping plants to cope more effectively in the face of stress, biostimulants help ensure that yields are higher than they would be without this “biological insurance”. Although it is not their primary reason for use, making plants more vigorous in the face of abiotic stresses is likely to make them less vulnerable to disease in the same way that you are less likely to fall ill if you eat a healthy, balanced diet.
Many plant biostimulants encourage better root systems, which speeds up crop establishment. Roots contribute to soil health by improving aeration and drainage, preventing erosion, adding organic matter (if left in the soil at harvest), and producing root exudates which support beneficial soil microbes and facilitate nutrient uptake. Greater root biomass leads to more soil carbon, which benefits soil structure, increases microbial activity, feeds soil dwellers like earthworms, and enhances nutrient supply. Biostimulants that foster robust root development also improve water use efficiency. Some plant biostimulants directly augment the biodiversity of the soil microbiome.
All of these benefits have been widely tested and documented in field trials. The overall benefit is an increase in marketable yield and quality. It is difficult to generalise the exact level of the impacts because it depends on the crop in question, the specific biostimulant product, the original state of the soil, how well managed crops already are and several other factors. However, yield increases related to biostimulant use are reported to be at least 5 – 10%.
· Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)
· Farmers