Elicit Plant: Revolutionizing Agriculture in the Face of Climate Change

″ELICIT PLANT is the only company in the AgTech sector that addresses the challenges of the impact of climate change on major crops globally by reducing water consumption by 20%. Its unique patented technology, EliTerra^®, based on the exogenous application of phytosterols, plant-derived molecules, enhances plant stress resistance by eliciting their natural defenses. Hundreds of field trials, combined with rapid adoption by farmers across three continents (Brazil, Europe, and the United States) for the first product designed for corn, demonstrate that its bio-solutions are the only ones to secure yields and offer farmers a significant return on investment during water shortages. ELICIT PLANT operates successfully in Brazil, Europe, and Ukraine and has experienced triple-digit growth over the last two years,″ says Jean-François Déchant, CEO of Elicit Plant, in this AgroPages interview. 

Solutions to water scarcity on crops are in great demand under current climate changes. Please tell us more about your unique technologies that meet such a demand. How do they work on crops? What are the advantages compared with other solutions to drought in the market?

Globally, rising temperatures and more frequent periods of drought often lead to significant financial losses for farmers worldwide and increase risks to food sovereignty. The two main current solutions to combat water scarcity used by the farmers, irrigation and varietal selection, are limiting. 

At the forefront of addressing these challenges, Elicit Plant has developed products based on disruptive innovations that utilize natural plant-based sterols, and phytosterols. These ″signal″ molecules trigger a cascade of plant molecular, physiological and phenotypic responses that result in plants’ adaptation to environmental changes and enhance their natural resilience to abiotic stress, reducing their water consumption by up to 20%. 

Elicit Plant is the only company that has formulated phytosterols into various products using this technology. Each product is designed to meet the specific needs of a particular crop, starting with broad-acre crops. We aim to deliver maximum performance while making our products easy for farmers to use. 

Our products are applied preventively on healthy plants before water becomes scarce. A single foliar application provides persistent, plant-induced systemic, long-lasting effects throughout the season. Application of the product induces partial closure of stomata, the pores through which gas exchanges occur, allowing the plant to reduce water loss without compromising its growth. Moreover, the plant promotes the development of its roots. This enables better soil exploration by the roots, thereby increasing its access to water. All these plant-induced responses allow plants to use water more efficiently before drought periods, thus conserving the available resources for more prolonged use.

We have carried out more than 500 field trials on broad-acre crops in various environmental conditions over five years on three continents to validate the effects of our products and guarantee yield performance in an agricultural setting. The product application integrates seamlessly into agricultural practices, ensuring optimal results for each crop. All these elements bring real benefits to farmers and are key differentiators in the market.

Would you like to discuss your products’ cost-effectiveness on broad-acre crops?

Our products enable better water use efficiency and help plants withstand water shortages. In practice, we have observed a 20% reduction in water consumption in field crops, without impacting plant growth. 

On crops suffering from periods of water shortage linked to climate change, this delays the onset of water stress and enables yield gains of 10% on average, with exceptional gains of up to 3 tons/ha on maize, for example. For irrigated crops, irrigation can reduce by 20% while maintaining the same level of yields. 

These performances guarantee real benefits for farmers and secure crop investments in the face of risks linked to climate change.

There are various natural phytosterols which are stress-specific and species-specific. How does Elicit Plant efficiently select phytosterol candidates for further development and efficiently produce the products?

In nature, there are more than 200 different phytosterols, each of which is stress-specific and species-specific. Phytosterols are, therefore, not a universal generic solution, and their level of performance on crops depends on their diversity, their combination and, of course, their formulation. Understanding and utilizing the properties of these defense mechanisms to trigger them against stress management is the foundation of Elicit Plant’s research work, through its unique EliTerra^® technology platform. 

In Elicit Plant’s laboratories and climate chambers, scientists and agronomists work together to screen different phytosterol balances, to understand the mode of action of our active ingredients, and to identify the respective physical and biological processes targeted by phytosterol-based substances. Our products undergo in-depth field evaluation every season to guarantee real-world performance while responding to specific geographical and soil-climate conditions. The success of our approach is based on two essential aspects: field observations by agronomists in a wide variety of situations who understand farmers’ needs and a vast network of trials that ensure product profitability under regional conditions.

Our researchers select and develop the most effective formulation according to the solution required and the results we want to achieve in farmers' fields. The number of possibilities is huge, and our platform, EliTerra^®, offers significant potential for developing new products. 

What other phytosterol-based formulations are in your product pipeline? Can we expect a new product launch in the near future?

We have products dedicated to corn, sunflowers, and small-grain cereals (mainly Barley), with more coming very soon.

This year, we will launch a product for soybean and another for wheat. We are working on many crops, and in our product pipeline, we intend to launch around ten new products over the next five years.

Where are your products distributed?

Our first Best-a Corn product has been marketed since 2022 in France and Ukraine and since the beginning of 2023 in Brazil. Our new products EliSun for Sunflower and EliGrain for cereals, are available in France and Ukraine since the end of 2023.

We also obtained European certification for 3 products (EliZea for Corn, EliSun-a for sunflower, EliGrain-a for cereals) at the end of 2023, and are developing our commercial presence through distribution partnerships in all countries. We are already represented in Poland, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Spain and Germany. Other countries are in the pipeline, and we intend to accelerate this deployment. 

Could you elaborate on Elicit Plant's preparation and strategy for entering the American market in 2025?

In the United States, the trials carried out over the past two years in the Corn Belt and marginal corn-growing areas have shown significant yield gains. Establishing a foothold in North America is one of our priorities. For that aim, we will rely on fertilizer licenses and certificates issued this year for a new corn-specific product dedicated to the American market, with a view to commercial launch as early as 2025.

We are gearing up for deployment in the US market in 2025, supported by an excellent local team, including Pam Marrone, a world leader in biosolutions and Chair of our Board, Rachel Raymond, US Strategic Advisor in charge of our US market deployment strategy, and Slavica Djonovic, a respected scientific leader in the sector, our new CSO based in Boston.

By anticipating a launch in the United States in 2025, Elicit Plant is consolidating its position as a leader in this highly buoyant market segment, and would become the only Ag-Tech company in its sector, present on three continents (Europe, Brazil, USA), to market a solution for reducing water consumption in field crops such as corn, soybean, wheat, and sunflower. 

Learn more about ELICIT PLANT >>

This interview was originally published in AgroPages magazine 2024 Biologicals Special.

Contact Joyce Wang (joyce@agropages.com) to show your bio-solutions through AgroPages.