Mitigating Abiotic

Stress to Create
Resilient Crops
Croda, May 2024
Table of contents
Why should we care about abiotic stress 3

How do plants respond to abiotic stress? 5

How the agricultural industry is responding to abiotic stress 6

Priming 7

Biostimulants 8

Breeding 9

Good farming practices 10

Challenges and possible solutions 11

How Croda and Incotec can help 15

With thanks to the following

for their input into their report
■  rofessor Edvaldo Aparecido Amaral da Silva,
P
Professor of Seed Production and Technology,
São Paulo State University (Unesp), Botucatu Campus

■ Hubert Ehouman, Cocoa/Banana/Mango/Cashew

and Vegetables Lead, West & Central Africa, UPL

■ Dr Rosa Dominguez-Espinosa, Global Product

Technology and Engineering Biologicals Technology
Lead, Syngenta

■ Dr Agnieszka Doroszuk, Research Manager,

Seed Technology at Rijk Zwaan

■ Professor Ben Scheres, Research Manager,

Biotechnology at Rijk Zwaan

■ Carolina Pereira Cardoso, Research Scientist,

Incotec South America

■ Marcia Werner, R&D Director, Incotec

■ Dr Steven Adams, Global Research and Technology

Manager, Croda
 MITIGATING ABIOTIC STRESS TO CREATE RESILIENT CROPS 3

Why should we care

about abiotic stress?
Abiotic stress is any environmental condition that can prevent the plant from reaching its
full genetic potential. In 2020-2022, Brazil enjoyed two record harvests. Then in 2023-2024,
El Niño struck. Residual ground water from the rainy season, combined with intense heat,
created a nationwide mix of water stress, heat stress, or both. Across the country, farmers
saw an average 20% loss in productivity due to these combined abiotic stresses.

The environment is complicated and varied, and Plants that are better able to resist the particular
abiotic stress has always been a problem for farmers, abiotic stresses they may encounter over their
especially those in more extreme climates. lives will have better yields and greater stability.
Some improvements will be incremental, some
transformative. Some will simply counteract the
Now, as climate change effects of changing climate conditions. Addressing
brings increasingly erratic weather, abiotic stress is not a single or perfect solution, but
the impact of abiotic stresses is all advances will improve yields relative to what will
happen if we do nothing. At scale, these will boost
worsening everywhere,
farmers’ profits, insulate them against climate change,
and improve global food supply without destroying
even in regions with historically mild and stable ecosystems to expand production.
climates. Some estimates suggest abiotic stresses
already cause over $170bn (£138bn) per annum in This paper will explore the problem, discuss
crop losses . emerging solutions, and explore some big picture
challenges we must overcome to drive progress in
abiotic stress mitigation.

(1)
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/352331452_Rewilding_crops_for_climate_resilience_economic_analysis_and_de_
novo_domestication_strategies
4 MITIGATING ABIOTIC STRESS TO CREATE RESILIENT CROPS

Abiotic stresses
Drought: Lack of water affects almost every aspect of plant
physiology and biochemistry.

Waterlogging: Excess water in the soil can lead to hypoxia

or anoxia (lack of oxygen), and fungal disease, affecting root
function and nutrient uptake.

Salinity: High levels of salts in the soil can interfere with the
plant's ability to absorb water and nutrients, leading to ionic
and osmotic stress.

pH: Very high or low soil pH can reduce key nutrients and
beneficial microbes, and increase toxic metals which inhibit
growth, as well as directly damaging root structure.

Temperature: Both extreme cold (chilling and freezing stress)

and extreme heat can damage plant tissues, proteins, and
membranes, affecting growth and development.

Heavy Metal: Heavy metals like lead, cadmium, mercury,

and arsenic in soil can be toxic to plants.

Nutrient Imbalance: Too few or too many essential nutrients

can disrupt plant metabolic processes and growth.

Light: Insufficient light limits photosynthesis, while excessive

light intensity can lead to photoinhibition and damage plant cells.

Wind: Strong winds can physically damage plants and cause

desiccation (drying out).

Pollution: Air pollutants such as ozone, sulphur dioxide,

and nitrogen oxides can enter leaf stomata and disrupt
internal processes.
 MITIGATING ABIOTIC STRESS TO CREATE RESILIENT CROPS 5

How do plants respond

to abiotic stress?
Abiotic stress affects plants in many fundamental ways. It can cause direct damage to
the plant, and also trigger protective responses with complex repercussions – not always
positive. These biological mechanisms are many and varied, but some key examples are
briefly outlined below. It is these types of responses that many abiotic stress solutions are
looking to harness, augment, modify, or constrain.

1. Cellular and Molecular Effects 2. Physiological Responses

Osmotic Stress: Many abiotic stresses, such as
■  Water Use Efficiency: Under drought conditions,
■ 
drought and salinity, lead to osmotic stress, which plants may close their stomata to prevent water
reduces the plant's ability to absorb water. This can loss. While this conserves water, it also reduces
cause cells to lose turgor pressure, essential for carbon dioxide intake, limiting photosynthesis.
maintaining cell structure and function. Flowering and Seed Production: Stress conditions
■ 
■ Oxidative Stress: Stress conditions often promote can affect flowering and reduce seed set and
the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), quality, as the plant allocates resources to survival
which can be useful in small numbers but damage rather than reproduction.
proteins, lipids, and DNA when overproduced. Rooting: Plants can adapt resources allocated to
■ 
Altered Gene Expression: Plants respond to
■  roots and modify their root architecture in response
abiotic stresses by changing the expression levels to water availability.
of hundreds of genes, leading to stress adaptation Hormonal Signalling: Many physiological
■ 
over time. These are usually beneficial but may responses are mediated by hormones, notably
have complicated trade-offs. Studying these Abscisic Acid (ABA), which closes stomata and
underlying mechanisms is valuable for resilience promotes seed dormancy, as well as Ethylene,
research and breeding programmes. Salicylic Acid, and Jasmonic Acid.

As this shows, the response of plants to abiotic stress is

complex and involves responses at multiple levels, from
molecular and cellular adjustments to physiological and
developmental shifts. Furthermore, stresses can impact
differently at different stages – germination, seedling
establishment, young plants – requiring a suite of
solutions for different plants and environments.

Nonetheless, some groundbreaking work has been

done in abiotic stress. Much more is expected in the
coming years.
6 MITIGATING ABIOTIC STRESS TO CREATE RESILIENT CROPS

How the agricultural

industry is responding
to abiotic stress
Abiotic stress solutions often start with identifying crops of value that are
facing abiotic stress, and studying their stress response mechanisms by
submitting them to controlled stresses (heat, cold, water levels, salinity,
etc) in labs, growth chambers or greenhouses.

This can be done without intervention, purely to gather data on stress

responses. Or as part of a controlled experiment where the same crop is
given different abiotic stress interventions, to compare performance to each
other and to a control group.

Responses can be measured in a variety of ways to determine whether the

intervention was effective. This can range from visual observations of plant
health, to multispectral imaging (reflectance and absorption patterns can
detect markers of healthy seeds and plants, such as chlorophyll, nutrients,
or moisture content), to RNA measurements that detect which genes are
active in resilient plants.

Abiotic stress mitigation remains a relatively small area of commercial

interest, compared to interventions such as seed treatments and fertilisers.
But it is rapidly growing in importance as the climate changes, and a number
of companies and researchers are working on exciting solutions. In this
section, we highlight some of the types of solutions that are emerging.
 MITIGATING ABIOTIC STRESS TO CREATE RESILIENT CROPS 7

Priming
Priming involves partially hydrating seeds to a level at which physiological processes can
start, but not enough to allow actual germination, i.e. protrusion of the root tip. The result
of priming is that seeds will germinate faster and more uniformly once planted. This can be
valuable for lots of reasons – as it produces larger, more uniform plants – and it will play an
increasingly important role in mitigating abiotic stress.

Priming gets the seed beyond its early germination ~22 °C, but a primed seed can germinate up to ~36 °C,
phase, where it is most vulnerable to environmental allowing it to grow at the farmer’s desired time in a much
stresses. Tailored priming conditions can also be used wider range of conditions.
to stimulate specific defence mechanisms such as
antioxidants and osmoprotectants, that make it more Other seeds simply don’t germinate well, or at all, under
resilient to stresses. stress. Priming improves the overall germination even
in stressed conditions. For example, below 20 °C, an
Some seeds can experience dormancy, a state that unprimed tomato seed would have a slow germination,
prevents germination until conditions are right for them. but primed seeds are more likely to germinate, and to
Other seeds can even go into secondary dormancy, germinate faster.
when conditions are suboptimal. In nature, this
increases the chance of survival of the seedling, but for Plants grown from primed seeds progress from seeds
industrialised crop production it is far from ideal. Priming to young plants much quicker, sometimes by several
can relieve primary dormancy, or prevent secondary days. A faster route to maturity – with developed roots
dormancy, by getting the seed beyond the physiological and leaves – means less time in a highly vulnerable
point where it may return to dormancy. For example a state where a sudden change of weather could be the
lettuce seed becomes dormant at temperatures above end of it.
8 MITIGATING ABIOTIC STRESS TO CREATE RESILIENT CROPS

Biostimulants
Biostimulants are chemicals or microorganisms that can be applied to seeds,
plants, or soils. Unlike pesticides which aim to protect plants from pests and diseases,
biostimulants directly enhance crop performance by stimulating natural processes.
Biostimulants work in many different ways, some of which improve resilience to abiotic stress.

A key stress response mechanism that biostimulants can Biostimulants can be delivered into plants via seed
target is antioxidant activity. By signalling to the plant to treatments, soil treatments, or foliar sprays. Formulating
boost antioxidant production, it enables them to mop up these can be challenging as they often involve
excess reactive oxygen species (ROS), which are often delivering complex molecules or live organisms to the
overproduced in stressed plants. plant, which means creating formulations that keep
the biostimulant alive, and ensure it is activated at the
Another promising area is osmoprotectants; small, precise point it needs to enter the plant. Some of these
organic molecules that help plant cells maintain water challenges are discussed in our previous paper on
content, and so ensure normal functioning in hot and ‘Formulating Biologicals’ .
dry weather. In saline environments, biostimulants can
improve ion balance and reduce the toxic effects of
excess sodium, helping plants to grow in conditions
that would otherwise be inhospitable.

“75% of the world’s cocoa is

grown in West Africa, but extreme
weather devastates both global
cocoa supply and farmers’ lives,
and such weather is only getting
worse thanks to climate change.
Thanks to antioxidant-boosting
biostimulants, we have seen
cocoa yields improve by over 35%,
and much greater resilience, even
in 2023 when El Niño brought a
40% production reduction in Ivory
Coast and Ghana.”

Hubert Ehouman, UPL

 MITIGATING ABIOTIC STRESS TO CREATE RESILIENT CROPS 9

Breeding
There are a variety of ways to do this. Conventional breeding involves finding plants with
desirable traits and cross-breeding them. It can include exposing seeds or plants to stress
conditions – such as drought, high salinity, extreme temperatures, and nutrient deficiencies –
with the aim of inducing physiological and biochemical changes that improve stress tolerance.
It is an established method, but slow and labour-intensive.

A faster and more targeted approach is to detect Technologies like CRISPR/Cas9 allow for precise editing
molecular or genetic markers associated with desirable of the plant genome to enhance or suppress specific
traits and breed those. For example, research by genes related to stress tolerance. So far this is largely
Professor Amaral da Silva and others looked at why confined to the lab. Plant genetics involves multiple
some soybeans are more resilient to high temperatures genes and complex interactions with the environment,
and drought than others. They found that, under stress, making it hard to reliably create improvements that will
some soybean seeds cling to their chlorophyll, which translate to the real world. Regulatory approval is also
should break down as they grow, leading to shorter life. lengthy and challenging for gene edited crops. However
Through DNA testing and chlorophyll measurements, gene editing is being used for research purposes to
they identified that certain genes were correlated with identify promising genes for stress tolerance, which can
chlorophyll breakdown under stressful conditions. That inform natural breeding programmes, and may play
opens the door to breeding programmes for plants with an important role in future crop programmes as the
these genes, which will be more resilient to the hot, dry technology and public acceptance matures.
conditions that are increasingly common in the world’s
largest soybean producing areas.

An even more targeted, but also more challenging,

approach is genetic engineering. That involves directly
manipulating a plant's genome to insert or modify genes
associated with abiotic stress tolerance.

(2)
https://www.incotec.com/mediaassets/files/incotec/whitepaper-biologicals.pdf?la=en-GB
(3)
https://bmcplantbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12870-016-0729-0
10 MITIGATING ABIOTIC STRESS TO CREATE RESILIENT CROPS

Good farming practices

Not all solutions are technological. Good practices in farming strategies will also be increasingly
needed. These include reducing stressful conditions, for example by planting trees to create shade
and wind protection, and efficient water and soil management and irrigation to ensure plants get
enough – but not too much – water and nutrients.

It will also need changing farming practices, for And new technologies – such as soil moisture sensors,
example long term overuse of fertiliser can alter soil pH, drones, and automated irrigation systems – will play
necessitating more precision use of chemicals, or new an ever growing role in optimising water and nutrient
alternatives that use biological organisms to improve soil delivery, and monitoring plant health in real time to
nutrients in natural ways. enable more precise, data-driven interventions against
abiotic stress.
 MITIGATING ABIOTIC STRESS TO CREATE RESILIENT CROPS 11

Challenges and
possible solutions
Whilst there is some innovation directed towards developing solutions to
abiotic stress, we are only just scratching the surface. The area remains
challenging with a wide variety of research avenues still to explore in all
the areas discussed above.

In this final section we discuss some of the outstanding challenges and

possible solutions. It is not intended to be exhaustive, but to stimulate
thinking and provide a foundation for conversations that advance the industry.

No silver bullet: “As yet there is little evidence on

universal stress response mechanisms across or within
species” says Ben Scheres of Rijk Zwaan. “We don’t
know if we need to find solutions crop by crop, or if there
may be some generalisable mechanisms we can target
broadly”.

His colleague Agnieszka Doroszuk adds “More

academic research into genetics and physiology of
stress responses could help better understand these
mechanisms at a fundamental level, which may unlock
generalisable solutions, or at least help define what is
and isn’t possible. For example, where are the points
you can manipulate to get resilience to salinity? That
would be the holy grail and allow broad solutions, but it
may not exist. We may need to do it crop by crop, but if
so, that would also be good to know. We should, as an
industry, invest in long term knowledge building here.”
Syngenta’s Rosa Dominguez-Espinosa reaches a similar
conclusion: “There would be a lot of value in more
work to understand the raw materials and fundamental
biological mechanisms of abiotic stress solutions”.
12 MITIGATING ABIOTIC STRESS TO CREATE RESILIENT CROPS

Moving from the lab to field: Whilst in vitro controlled

experiments give signals of effectiveness, the real world
is far messier. Validating promising lab results in the field
is expensive, especially as it may take a few seasons
for the abiotic stresses being targeted to arise naturally.
Reproducing lab conditions for breeding is challenging.
And even then, it may not be successful – the conditions
that created a stress tolerant plant in the lab may not be
the same in the field.

More test beds for studying solutions under real world

conditions could help. On site breeding programmes
could also help select plants for specific climatic
conditions. “Further studies of wild ancestors of crops
may also yield insights” says Ben Scheres, “since many
of today’s crops have been bred for yield, size and taste,
but not necessarily for abiotic resilience, whereas nature
is primarily focused on survival”. array for detecting genetic variations, that will greatly
help with understanding which variations show promise”.
Better measurement will also help. “We have shown how Genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics all promise
multispectral analysis can classify promising approaches deep insights into the physiological and molecular
early,” says Professor Amaral da Silva, “and we are mechanisms underlying stress tolerance, opening new
developing a SNP (Single nucleotide polymorphisms)- avenues for breeding.
 MITIGATING ABIOTIC STRESS TO CREATE RESILIENT CROPS 13

Deploying new technologies: New technologies, some including image and genetic analysis, has allowed – and
of which must first be better understood, could speed will allow – considerable progress in understanding
progress in abiotic stress solutions. Nanotechnology can and developing solutions for abiotic stress. Next,
help release compounds to the seed. Molecular biology nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, and molecular
including CRISPR precision gene editing techniques biology, promise a revolution that will produce the most
could be used to modify seeds to be more resilient. sustainable agriculture seen by humanity.”
Much more work is needed to understand the role these
can play in crop treatments.
CropXR
AI can analyse a growing body of plant measurement
data and chemical libraries to quickly understand The EUR 15m CropXR project is a 10 year
biological response mechanisms, and propose chemical initiative in the Netherlands focused
interventions that could adapt those responses for on developing more resilient crops
stressful environments. All of this will need ever more through 'smart breeding' techniques.
collaboration and data sharing between researchers and It brings together over 20 universities,
companies. Well-structured initiatives are needed that breeding companies, and technology
allow organisations to work together and share data for companies, to combine plant biology,
their mutual benefit, without risking IP, such as the one agricultural sciences, and plant breeding
being pioneered by CropXR (see box). with experimental research, artificial
intelligence, and computational modeling
Despite the barriers, Professor Amaral da Silva is to identify new solutions to crop stress.
optimistic: “We need multidisciplinary research to
overcome problems. Analysis of in situ metabolism,

Registering new products: “A lot of abiotic stress

products involve cutting edge technologies, such as
new biostimulants, and these can be hard to register”
says Agnieszka Doroszuk. “These products are complex
and hard to standardise in ways regulators want, and this
is not helped by varied and evolving regulatory systems
around the world”. Long term there is need for clearer,
more consistent regulation.

But even if rules become clearer, such complex

products will need the companies developing them
to build or access new expertise in product testing,
gathering reliable efficacy data, and navigating
regulatory frameworks to register products in
different markets.

(4)
https://cropxr.org/
14 MITIGATING ABIOTIC STRESS TO CREATE RESILIENT CROPS

Changing how we think about crop care: Developing profits obliterated in a year of extreme weather. We need
effective products is only part of the battle – farmers to communicate strategies for dealing with abiotic stress
also need to be willing to use them. differently to the way we communicate other agricultural
products.”
Some of that will be achieved by running trials, and
gathering data for farmers to evaluate. Hubert Ehouman
from UPL notes that “In West Africa we achieved scale,
and helped smallholders who lack the time and money,
by running demonstrations on small plots at a few
hundred farms, alongside education, so farmers can see
the results of abiotic stress products for themselves”.

But not all treatments are visibly transformational,

and mindsets will need to shift when thinking about
abiotic stress. “Many farmers are used to products
like insecticides with observable effects” says Rosa
Dominguez-Espinosa. “Abiotic stress products show their
benefits better when there are environmental stresses,
so a mild summer may show small differences between
a field without stress mitigation, leading farmers to
conclude they have little return of investments. It is
better to think of them like an insurance policy, which
they always need to have in place, so that they don’t see
 MITIGATING ABIOTIC STRESS TO CREATE RESILIENT CROPS 15

How Croda
Agriculture
can help
Croda and Incotec invite discussion and
collaboration with industry and academia
to explore and address the challenges of
developing and deploying abiotic stress
solutions.

We have a range of expertise we can bring to the table,

borne out of our research into new actives against
abiotic stress, experience of formulating seed and foliar
treatments including those based on biologicals and
complex organic compounds, and work on testing and
validating the efficacy of new seed and foliar products.

But this is a new and rapidly evolving area with a vast

amount not yet known, and we are only one player.
As this whitepaper shows, collaboration will accelerate
innovation and bring new abiotic stress products to
market, and we want to hear from others working in
this space to explore projects where we can deploy our
combined expertise to accelerate innovation.

About Croda Agriculture

Croda Agriculture aims to enhance agricultural
performance through innovative delivery technologies.

We support our customers with targeted delivery,

technology and customized innovation to increase
sustainability, improve agricultural yields and contribute
Collaboration
to global food security.
will accelerate
innovation and
bring new abiotic
stress products
to market.
www.crodacropcare.com www.incotec.com