COVID-19 Impact on Latin America Plant Breeding and Crispr Plant Market in Agriculture Industry

COVID-19 pandemic has affected the Latin America plant breeding & CRISPR plants market significantly on a global level. The persistence of COVID-19 for a longer period has affected the supply and demand chain as it got disrupted and it got hard to supply the plant breeding agricultural products. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Latin America countries are expecting a decline in the plant breeding & CRISPR plants market initially due to restriction on movements, de-globalization, loss of farmer’s income, restriction on import and export, restriction in the supply of agricultural products, all these factors have impacted the market growth negatively. The COVID-19 has led to the lockdown all around the world which has impacted the plant breeding & CRISPR plants market tremendously as the supply of agricultural products such as new variety seeds in the Latin America region has affected due to which the crop production, agricultural product sales, supply, and trade has faced a crisis. During the COVID-19 outbreak, the farmers of Latin America has faced a lot of losses in their crop production as there was a restriction on movements and also it was hard for them to collect agricultural products from the farmers. Therefore, farmers in Latin America are looking out for products that offer high yield and a wide range of resistance to climate, disease, herbicides, and others to cover up for their losses.
After the outbreak of COVID-19, the farmers in Latin America are looking out for products which offer higher yield so that they can fulfil the growing demand of the population as well as cover-up for their losses. Also with the growing population of Latin America and with the ongoing COVD-19 outbreak, farmers are looking out for the variety which possesses the desired traits so that they can fulfil the growing demand which will thrive the market for plant breeding & CRISPR plants. Increase in awareness regarding the use of plant breeding & CRISPR technique to produce new variety plant which can produce higher yield crops with better quality and offer a wide range of resistance from herbicides, disease, and climate will drive the Latin America plant breeding & CRISPR plants market. Initially, the demand and supply of new variety agricultural products have decreased due to the movement restrictions, loss of labour but later after the COVID-19 outbreak the demand for crops produced from plant breeding & CRISPR technique is rising owning to increase in demand of high yield crop among farmers.

COVID-19 OUTBREAK LEADS TO THE REDUCTION OF THE SUPPLY CHAIN OF PLANT BREEDING & CRISPR PLANTS MARKET
The COVID-19 crisis has majorly affected the plant breeding & CRISPR plants market and its supply chain in the Latin America region. Due to the persistence of the COVID-19, a lockdown situation happened all around the world which has disturbed the supply chain of the agricultural products production of the crop, trading of the crop, transportation and others due to which market has faced a major crisis due to this. Due to restriction in the movements, it was difficult for the manufacturers to distribute their plant breeding agricultural products to the farmer and it also made it difficult for the farmers in crop production as the movement was prohibited and there was no supply for agricultural products. Also, the restriction in trading, supplying of products across the countries or even within the countries hit the supply of global manufacturers such as BAYER AG, Syngenta and others, as during the COVID-19 outbreak restriction movement made it hard for them to supply their products in Latin America market. Also due to restrictions on import and export, the plant breeding & CRISPR plants products are hard to sell across the countries and even across the Latin American countries which have eventually affected the growth of the Latin America plant breeding & CRISPR plants market. Also with the COVID-19 outbreak, the demand for plant breeding & CRISPR plants products has decreased initially due to lack of awareness, restriction on the trading process, loss of labour, farmer’s employment and farmer’s income which has affected the market initially.

GROWING AWARENESS REGARDING THE USE OF PLANT BREEDING & CRISPR PLANTS AND THE RISING ADOPTION RATE FOR NEW VARIETY CROPS IS DRIVING THE MARKET
With the growing awareness regarding the benefits of using breeding technology & CRISPR technique to produce high yield crop with better nutritional quality, which offers disease resistance and herbicide tolerance traits, the demand for new variety crops is increasing. Also, farmers are opting for a new variety of crops produced from breeding methods & CRISPR technique as they faced a lot of loss in productivity during the COVID-19 outbreak as there was a restriction on the movements and were unable to produce new crops. Therefore, after the uplifting of transportation restriction after the COVID-19, the farmers would look for the products which help to fill up the losses of their productivity and help them gain more profit. The demand for new variety crops has suddenly increased after the COVID-19 outbreak for sustainable crop production and to produce a much higher yield crop. Also, the rise in the adoption rate of new variety crop produced by plant breeding technique among Latin American consumers is the main factor driving the market.
For instance,
• In 2017, According to ISAAA, Brazil is the second-largest producer of biotech crops in the world and has an average adoption rate of 94% for biotech maize, cotton and soybean.
Also, the manufacturers are investing more in producing new variety crops in the Latin America region which will drive the market in a positive direction.
For instance,
• KWS SAAT SE & Co. KGaA has invested Euro 10 million at Patos de Minas, Brazil to increase the production capacity of corn from 900,000 to two million units.
An increase in the adoption rate and increased investment for increasing the production of new variety crops to fulfill the growing demand for food with better nutrition in Latin America will drive market growth positively.

MANUFACTURER’S PERSPECTIVE
The potential of gene editing, especially the CRISPR technique to improve the crop, is adopted by many companies to address the agricultural problem and “We can identify a handful [of companies] currently, but in the future that number will rise, perhaps even triple,” says Matt Crisp, CEO of Benson Hill in February 2019.
“ToBRFV can quickly devastate tomato crops, so Bayer worked to develop a product to help growers combat it,” said JD Rossouw, Head of Bayer’s Vegetable Seeds R&D, in September 2020. “Bayer leveraged our global cross-functional teams and extensive research and development pipeline to offer a solution designed to ease the day-to-day challenges faced by growers. Our research continues across several tomato species to bring further innovative resistance to growers as quickly as possible.”
“We are introducing the Brevant brand for farmers who prefer the service and local expertise that retail brings to their farm,” says Mike Lozier, marketing leader for Brevant in May 2020. “With Brevant, both retailers and farmers have the freedom to choose a new brand without compromising what’s most important to them. We’re committed to collaborating with farmers’ local retail teams to ensure their farm is always ready for what’s next.”
Under its corn breeding program, KWS will further expand its seed portfolio in Brazil with a large variety of high-performance hybrids in the coming years: “KWS’ breeding program is quickly picking up speed, and we plan to launch many new corn hybrids over the next few years. Our breeding progress and our sales figures make us confident that we’ll become a leading provider of corn seed in Brazil in the medium to long term,” noted Alexander Drotschmann, Head of Business Unit Corn & Oilcrops Americas in July 2019.

CONCLUSION
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected almost all industries including the plant breeding & CRISPR plants market. Also, the COVID-19 outbreak has affected the population and economy on a global level. During this pandemic, the farmers have a lot of loss in crop production due to restrictions on the movement, which is increasing the demand of new variety crops that offer a high yield to cover up for their losses. The majority of the Latin American farmers are also getting aware of the benefits offered by the new variety crops produced from plant breeding & CRISPR plants technique. An increase in the number of programmes to educate the consumers and farmers about the benefits of using plant breeding & CRISPR plants in Latin America and raised investments for new variety crop by Latin American manufacturer will drive the plant breeding & CRISPR plants market in a positive direction. Increasing demand for new variety crops to increase the yield with better quality crops and offer a wide range of resistance against the herbicides, disease, or climate will add to the market's growth. Thus, the Latin American plant breeding & CRISPR plants market will be increasing after the COVID-19 outbreak and will grow for the long period due to the increasing demand for higher yield crop to cover up their losses after the upliftment of the transportation.