Stratovation Group | Row Crop Biologicals Study, Version 3

A vast majority of large row-crop farmers (89%) know what agricultural biologicals are.

That number has been flat for two years. Which means the industry has done its job on awareness. Farmers have heard of the category. They know the terminology. They’ve seen the ads, attended the field days and visited the trade show booths.

And 48% of them still aren’t buying.

That’s the most important number in our 2026 Row Crop Biologicals Study. Not the 52% who are purchasing, though that’s meaningful category growth from 37% in 2022. It’s the 48% who know the category exists and have decided, for now, that it isn’t for them.

When you look at who those non-buyers are, the picture gets more specific. Two-thirds of farmers not currently using biologicals have never tried them. They didn’t test a product and walk away disappointed. They haven’t started. They’re still sitting on the sideline watching.

What are they watching for? Proof. They’re watching whether the farmers they trust, their neighbors, their Extension contacts, the people they talk to at the elevator, are getting real return on investment. They’re skeptical of category claims and are not willing to verify them in their own fields. And they’ve watched enough input categories come and go to be deliberate about what they add to their program.

This is actually good news if you understand what it means. The awareness battle is won. The conversion battle requires a fundamentally different strategy.

The lapsed-user data makes the stakes clear. Among farmers who tried biologicals and stopped, 57% said it wasn’t worth the cost and 47% said the product didn’t work. Those aren’t farmers who need more education about the category. They’re farmers who needed better products, better ROI, or better support, and didn’t get it. Every one of those farmers is a voice in the peer network that non-buyers are listening to.

Meanwhile, bio-fertilizer perception scores had the biggest positive jump of any subcategory we tracked. Top ratings up 11 points in a single cycle. Biopesticide awareness is up 15 points from 2024. Biostimulant awareness is at 84%. These are signals that the category infrastructure is strengthening. Farmers are paying attention. The question is whether individual companies are giving them a reason to act.

The 48% of nonbuyers isn’t a ceiling on the category. It’s a description of where the market is today and a roadmap for what has to happen next. Winning those farmers requires field-level proof, peer-credible storytelling, and products with documented performance. The companies that get that right in the next two to three years will own a significant share of a category that is still very much in formation.

Stratovation Group has now tracked the biologicals category across three farmer-centric studies over the last several years. We help biological product companies translate that data into strategy. If you want to understand what it takes to win the conversion phase of this market, let’s talk.