Recent innovation in crop protection research

A strong increase in agricultural productivity and sustainable food production has become indispensable due to the constantly growing world population. Crop yields suffer greatly from weeds, harmful insects, and fungal or other pathogens, and effective crop protection strategies are needed to protect crops and ensure higher yields. Changing regulatory requirements and resistance developments lead to a constant demand for new crop protection products with good sustainability profiles and novel modes of action (MOA). This chapter provides an overview of the discovery and development of new innovative active ingredients with novel chemistries and a broad range of new or underexplored MOA with beneficial features for insect, disease, nematode, virus, animal parasite, and weed control. In addition, much progress has also been made in the discovery and development of compounds for crop enhancement and many innovations have been realized in green crop protection research and bioprotection products, which is also being discussed to some extent.