Climate is the greatest threat to EU crops, and biostimulants can help.
June 2026
In 2025, the EU’s fi-compass published the report Insurance and Risk Management Tools for Agriculture in the EU that takes stock of the forms of support currently in place for agriculture insurance schemes and other climate adaptation de-risking schemes across EU Member States, providing recommendations on how to improve access to finance and mitigate climate risks. This report prices the cost of climate variability for EU agriculture, and the costs are staggering.
Overall, the estimated average agricultural losses to climate variability total €28 billion per year, of which about €17.4 billion are crop losses. This lost yield is linked to abiotic stress such as drought, heat, salinity, cold, and excess rainfall. By 2050, those crop losses to abiotic stress could climb to €28.3 billion on average every year.
Who bears the cost of crop losses to climate stress?
Less than 1/3 of EU farmers are insured. 70-80% of these losses fall on the shoulders of farmers. Then, in difficult years, it falls on governments through support and bailouts. From there, it moves into supply chains and food prices. The loss does not stay neatly in the field. It affects farm margins. It affects public budgets. It affects processors, retailers and consumers.
How can we better manage this systemic risk?
When we look behind the aggregate numbers, one hazard dominates: drought is responsible for more than half of crop losses to abiotic stress. That’s where plant biostimulants can help.
Many of the plant biostimulants on the market in Europe today are designed to help crops better withstand drought, which is usually a combination of heat and water stress. Plant biostimulants act like shock absorbers. Plant biostimulants help protect farm margins by absorbing recurring but low-level losses from mild episodes of drought that fatigue crops without wiping them out. Those chronic but less visible, losses erode financial reserves and farm resilience. Beyond that cushion, yield stability matters because lower variance is relevant to insurers and lenders. If farmers can use plant biostimulants to reduce the impact of climate stress on their yields, they can secure lower insurance premiums and become more attractive to lenders. Finally, by increasing crop tolerance to severe episodes of climate stresses like drought, plant biostimulants lessen vulnerability by reducing the frequency with which losses escalate.
EBIC surveyed its members to better understand how much plant biostimulants help farmers better withstand climate stress and other abiotic stresses. Just like the data on crop stresses, most of the trials that were reported focused on drought conditions. According to our data, the worse the stress, the greater the benefit of using plant biostimulants. In cases where the control crops suffered more than 40% losses to abiotic stress, the benefit from using plant biostimulants was five times greater than under mild loss scenarios. The products appear to work hardest where crops and farmers are most vulnerable. This is not just about yield enhancement in good conditions. It is about reducing loss in bad conditions. Plant biostimulants are not just a productivity tool; they are a resilience tool.
We calculated what that recovery is worth to EU farmers. Based on our figures, plant biostimulants can help protect 4-8% of losses to abiotic stress. If we combine that “yield shield” with the cost of losses detailed in the fi-compass report, plant biostimulants can help prevent €700 million – €1.13 billion in crop losses to abiotic stress every year.
To learn more, view the presentation “The Climate Risk Reality: The economics of resilience” from the 2026 EBIC Summit “The imperatives for competitiveness, security and resilience in EU agriculture.”