Overview of the WIPO Patent Landscape Report on Agrifood

Seeds of Global Innovation

There is an increasing need to implement effective measures to support global food security. In recent years, we have witnessed varying impacts on hunger and food insecurity as global commodity and energy markets have faced significant disruptions, just as the world was beginning to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The world’s population is expected to grow a further 20% over the next 25 years, reaching 9.7 billion by 2050. This will create many challenges in the coming years with increasing urbanization affecting the availability of natural resources and the scarcity of agricultural land, climate change affecting crop yield and livestock production, and an increasing demand for animal protein food being driven by rising income worldwide. Demand for food is estimated to increase by 56% in 2050 compared to 2013.

The amount of money being invested into Agrifood technology has increased from $3 billion in 2012 to almost $30 billion in 2022, with more entrepreneurs and technology experts joining the field to look at possible technological responses to address these challenges and to increase food security by making production of food more efficient, scalable, sustainable, and resilient to different environmental conditions.

This WIPO Patent Landscape Report investigates patenting activity within the Agrifood sector by analyzing patent data in agricultural technology (AgriTech) and the food industry (FoodTech). To characterize individual innovation trends, the agricultural and food industry sectors have been investigated into 23 sub-domains, with deep-dive case studies conducted for soil and fertilizer management, non-pesticide pest and disease management, precision agriculture, and alternative nutrient sources for human food. By identifying innovation trends and key players helping to improve the food security system, its analysis also emphasizes the consistency between technology development and regional policies from governments.

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Where are most Agrifood technologies invented and patents filed?

The Agrifood sector is vast and comprises over 3.5 million published patent families (inventions) over the past 20 years.

In overall standings, Asia is the region with the most filed patent applications in the Agrifood sector, China being the leader in the total amount of patent applications. Yet, most of them are filed only in China and not extended internationally, thereby providing solutions mostly beneficial domestically. Due to the vast size of the Agrifood super-domain and to assure representation of global trends, only international patent families have been chosen for the analysis.

Locations with the most priority filings of international Agrifood patent families

The United States are the leader in priority filings of international patent families, reflecting the location of the research and development (R&D) departments providing global solutions. The USA is followed by：

• China
• Japan
• Europe (European Patent Office)
• The Republic of Korea.

Locations with the fastest growth in priority filings of international Agrifood patent families

The locations with the fastest growth in priority filings of international patent families are：

• India
• China
• The Republic of Korea.

What are the emerging technologies transforming the Agrifood sector?

1. Precision farming

Worldwide patent literature from the last two decades points out that manufacturers of agricultural machineries deployed extensive efforts to develop automatic and autonomous agricultural robots, as well as controlled farm environments. This field is developing at fast pace due to recent developments in the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), imaging, and sensor technologies, equally enabling the first predictive algorithms to assisting farm duties. Digital transformation is also promoted by governments paying attention to strengthen the attractivity of agriculture domains to young people.

2. Agricultural biotechnology-based solutions

The current landscape also demonstrates an important growth for domains related to fertilizers and pesticides. The agricultural sector, being heavily dependent on chemicals, is consensually requested to shift into green technologies from regional incitation or policies, pushing the innovation into wider application of biotechnology-based solutions valorizing agricultural waste, supporting soil microbiome, and improving overall soil health. However, no major technical alternatives are emerging to directly replace chemical pesticides.

3. Alternative protein production

The meat and dairy industry are the most resource-demanding Agrifood domains, a strong and stable innovation trend is easily identified in alternative protein production. The alternatives include plants, insects, fungi, and algae as high-quality protein sources but also more recent technologies like cultured lab-grown meat and precision fermentation. A substantial part of the innovation in this domain is devoted to the improvement of nutritious and sensory characteristics of food products.

To date, digital transformation and biotechnology ignited a major shift in paradigm: from traditional human/machine-centric soil-management systems to multidisciplinary, automated, and connected approaches. However, enforcement of concerted regulations from regional governments is critical to properly orient the promised gain in productivity to a universal benefit. It remains a mandatory milestone to succeed ensuring a sustainable food security system worldwide in the years to come.

Which are the top organizations with the most patents in Agrifood?

1. Top agrochemical companies in the world

In the AgriTech field, innovation is primarily led by agrochemical companies from Germany (BASF, Bayer), China (Sinochem), and Japan (Sumitomo), focusing on crop genetics, pest management.

2. Top Agricultural machinery manufacturers in the world

Agricultural machinery manufacturers from the United States (Deere, Claas), Japan (Kubota) and Europe (CNH Industrials) play crucial roles in automation, smart farming, and precision agriculture. Asian technology companies (Sony, LG Electronics, Samsung, Qualcomm, Ericsson, Nvidia) are key players in IoT-related sub-domains like smart farming and robotics.

3. Top food and food chemistry companies in the world

The FoodTech sector is mainly led by European industries, particularly food and food chemistry companies from Switzerland/Netherlands (Nestlé, DSM-Firmenich), Germany (BASF), and the UK (Unilever).

4. Top industrial machinery manufacturers in the world

Industrial machinery manufacturers from Europe (such as SEB and Robert Bosch Foundation) and Asia (including Kotobuki Realty and Samsung) are also actively shaping the future of food technology.

5. Top food service technology companies in the world

The food service subfield is dominated by technology companies from the United States (including Microsoft, Alphabet, and Apple) and Republic of Korea (such as Samsung).