The herbicide safeners market is projected to reach USD 1,206.7 million by 2023, from USD 851.8 million in 2018, at a CAGR of 7.22%. The market is driven by the increased use of herbicides, especially in the developing regions of Asia Pacific and South America. Additionally, with the growing concerns of herbicide injury to the target crops, safeners are used to reduce the crop damage without limiting their activity on the targeted weed species.
Using herbicides to eradicate weeds at an early stage helps in increasing the productivity and yield per unit, which has led to increased use among producers across the globe. However, in addition to killing weeds, herbicides also exert toxicity on crops. Herbicides can injure the main crop by damaging its shoots, foliage, flowers, and fruits. It can also lead to reduced yield, poor fruit quality, and can even cause death in plants. Herbicide injury to main crops may also result in the presence of chemical residues that can harm humans after consumption.
Thus, safeners are added to herbicides to protect the main crops from herbicide injury. Adding safeners to herbicides improves the target selectivity between crop and weed species. Sometimes, herbicide safeners are only used with specific herbicide adjuvants and active ingredients. For instance, benoxacor is added as a safener to protect crops against damage caused by the herbicide active ingredient, S-metolachlor.
The global market for herbicide safeners is dominated by large players such as DowDuPont (US), BASF (Germany), Bayer (Germany), and Syngenta (Switzerland). Some emerging players in the herbicide safeners market include Nufarm (Australia), Adama (Israel), Arysta LifeScience (US), Drexel Chemical Company (US), Land O’Lakes (US), Sipcam-Oxon (Italy), Helm AG (Germany), and Tenkoz (US).
