Industries
Seeds & genetics
What changes this industry: bio-solutions with evidence, technologies, suppliers and open money.
Overview of the industry
Chemical crop and animal protection used to compensate for susceptible genetics — fungicide programmes on blight-susceptible potato and mildew-susceptible grapes, insecticide sprays on caterpillar-prone cotton, routine antibiotics and acaricides in disease-susceptible animals — and the resistant varieties, traits and breeding stock that make many of those treatments unnecessary.
Varieties need national registration (in Russia: the State Register of Breeding Achievements). GM crops and gene-edited organisms are regulated very differently by territory: GM cultivation is banned in Russia (Federal Law 358-FZ, 2016) and limited to one maize event in the EU, while gene editing has case-by-case rules in the Americas.
Articles#
| ID | Problem → alternative | Replaces | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| SG01 | Crop diseases → resistant varieties (MAS, gene stacking, cisgenesis, PIWI grapes) | Routine fungicide programmes (mancozeb, chlorothalonil, copper, triazoles) | Replace / Partial |
| SG02 | Caterpillar pests → Bt cotton, maize, soybean, eggplant | Organophosphate, carbamate and pyrethroid sprays | Replace (target pests) / Partial |
| SG03 | Animal disease → adapted breeds, genomic selection, PRRS-resistant pigs | Routine antibiotics, acaricide dipping, mass treatment | Partial |
| SG04 | Aquaculture disease → QTL/genomic selection, SPF/SPR broodstock | Antibiotics, formalin, pond chemicals | Partial |
Related articles elsewhere#
Reviewed but SKIPPED (no proven bio-alternative)#
| Substance / use | Hazard | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Herbicide-tolerant (HT) crops | Raise, not lower, herbicide use (glyphosate, glufosinate) | A genetic trait, but it enables chemistry rather than replacing it — not a bioeconomy substitution |
| Weed control through crop genetics (allelopathic varieties) | — | Research stage; no commercial variety replaces herbicides |
| Biofortified crops (zinc wheat, vitamin-A cassava) | — | Valuable for nutrition, but they replace supplements, not a hazardous chemical — out of this collection’s frame |
What it replaces 4
| D3 | Insect-resistant (Bt) crop varieties — cotton, maize, soybean, eggplant — instead of broad-spectrum insecticide sprays against bollworms, stem borers and fruit borers Replaces: Repeated organophosphate, carbamate and pyrethroid sprays against lepidopteran pests (Helicoverpa, pink bollworm, Ostrinia/Sesamia corn borers, fall … | 8 | GM |
| D2 | Disease-resistant crop varieties (marker-assisted breeding, stacked resistance genes, cisgenesis) instead of routine fungicide spray programmes Replaces: Season-long protective fungicide programmes on susceptible varieties — e.g. 10–20 sprays of mancozeb/chlorothalonil/metalaxyl against potato late … | 11 | SEED |
| D2 | Disease-resistant fish and shrimp lines (QTL- and genomic selection, SPF/SPR broodstock) instead of antibiotics, formalin and pond chemicals Replaces: Prophylactic and metaphylactic antibiotics in hatcheries and grow-out; formalin and other chemical baths; pond disinfectants used after outbreaks | 7 | BREED |
| D1 | Disease-resistant livestock genetics — genomic selection, adapted breeds, gene-edited PRRS-resistant pigs — instead of routine antibiotics, acaricides and repeated mass treatment Replaces: Metaphylactic antibiotics used against secondary infections after PRRS and other viral diseases; frequent acaricide dipping of tick-susceptible … | 8 | BREED |
Technologies 16
| Allelopathic crops Breeding and deployment of crops that naturally exude biochemicals to suppress surrounding weeds, offering a biological alternative to synthetic herbicides. | Crop biotech |
| Artificial insemination in livestock The genetics logistics of livestock — semen collection, extension, cryopreservation and insemination at the scale a breeding program needs. The table carries … | Livestock & aquaculture |
| Bio-seed coatings Biodegradable chitosan, alginate and cellulose seed films that replace acrylate microplastic binders, encapsulating live rhizobia, Bacillus and micronutrients … | Agri-inputs & biocontrol |
| Biofortification The program layer of biofortification — the international breeding institutes, nutrition-testing laboratories and commercial seed players that breed, evaluate, … | Crop biotech |
| Biofortification of crops Breeding and genetically engineering staple crops to naturally accumulate higher levels of essential vitamins and minerals, addressing global hidden hunger. | Crop biotech |
| Climate-resilient crops Crop varieties bred or engineered for drought, heat, salinity and low-cadmium tolerance — from Bioceres' HB4 drought wheat and KWS CR+ sugarbeet to Longping's … | Crop biotech |
| Genetic design of ornamental & landscape plants Genetic engineering of ornamental plants and landscape trees for novel traits, bioluminescence, and urban air purification. | Crop biotech |
| Genetic engineering & bio-selection Advanced crop breeding utilizing genomic selection, CRISPR-Cas9, and marker-assisted breeding for high-yield, resilient seeds. | Crop biotech |
| Grafting platforms for vegetables Robotic grafting platforms that join high-yield vegetable scions onto disease-resistant wild rootstocks — a non-GMO answer to soil-borne pathogens and the loss … | Crop biotech |
| Livestock genetic engineering and precision breeding Gene editing and genomic selection are converging on livestock breeding — from FDA-cleared heat-tolerant cattle and disease-resistant pigs to India's first … | Livestock & aquaculture |
| Nitrogen-fixing cereals & biological nitrification inhibition Development of biological nitrification inhibitors and engineered root-zone microbes that allow cereal crops to utilize nitrogen directly, reducing synthetic … | Crop biotech |
| Perennial grains Development and commercialization of grain crops that do not require annual replanting, offering continuous root growth for deep carbon sequestration and soil … | Crop biotech |
| Phenomics & high-throughput phenotyping High-throughput systems using sensors and machine learning to rapidly measure plant traits. | Crop biotech |
| Precision Plant Breeding & CRISPR Crop Editing Precision plant breeding combines CRISPR crop editing, AI-driven genomic selection and speed breeding to deliver trait-stacked varieties in 3–4 years — … | Crop biotech |
| Speed-breeding & seed services A horizontal infrastructure-and-service layer — turnkey speed-breeding rooms (Urban Crop Solutions), customizable research grow chambers (AmplifiedAg), … | Crop biotech |
| Sperm-sexing & reproductive biotech in livestock Flow-cytometry and microfluidic laser-ablation sperm sexing, combined with OPU-IVF embryo production and preimplantation genomic screening, that lets dairy … | Livestock & aquaculture |
Opportunities 0
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