Agriculture & Animal Health Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Filing nearly doubled in three years. Complete-year filings rose from 210 in 2021 to 366 in 2024, a 74% increase, before 2025-26 figures start understating activity due to publication lag.
- The field is not dominated by one filer. The leader holds 340 records, but the ranked leaders' combined top 5 is 23.5% and top 10 is 28.9% of all 2,744 records — a long tail does most of the filing.
- Data processing outpaces the biology. G06Q business/data-processing classes appear on 29.8% of records, ahead of horticulture (A01G, 23.4%) and AI-based computing (G06N, 21.3%) — software claims now frame much of the field.
Filing growth compares 2021 (210 records) with 2024 (366) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 2,744 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape draws on 2,744 published records filed against agricultural technology, animal health and precision agriculture terms, cross-referenced with specific technical branches spanning crop breeding, controlled environment agriculture, irrigation, forestry technology, veterinary diagnostics, post-harvest technology and site-specific farming. The scope runs from 2015 through a 2026-07-31 cut-off, with 2025 and 2026 filings understated because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months.
Records concentrate around three overlapping themes: agronomic sensing and control (irrigation, soil working, navigation), the agrochemical and biocide layer, and a growing data/AI layer sitting on top of both. India, the United States and WIPO account for most of the receiving-office activity, which matters for where enforcement and freedom-to-operate work should start.
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Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 2,744-record corpus: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Published records climbed from 69 in 2017 to a complete-year peak of 692 in 2025, with 2021-2024 alone up 74% (210 to 366). 2026's 380 is a partial year and will rise as later publications land.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
G06Q (business/data-processing) leads at 29.8% of all records, ahead of A01G horticulture and forestry (23.4%), G06N AI-based computing (21.3%) and A01N biocides (21.0%). Because records carry multiple classes, these shares sum past 100% and should be read against the 2,744-record total, not against each other as a closed pie.
Shares are the percentage of the 2,744 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries & Animal Health Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about agriculture, forestry, fisheries & animal health patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative filing and most-cited prior art
Methods and systems for the management of precise agricultural irrigation
The present invention relates to the field of precision agriculture, particularly to systems and methods for providing crop coefficient (Kc) values including near real time and forecast values for the management of precise agricultural irrigation.Filed by Manna Irrigation, granted 2024-04-09 as US11953872B2.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6199000B1 | Methods and apparatus for precision agriculture operations utilizing real time kinematic global positioning s… | 641 |
| 2 | US5927603A | Closed loop control system, sensing apparatus and fluid application system for a precision irrigation device | 481 |
| 3 | US5955973A | Field navigation system | 399 |
| 4 | US6553299B1 | Methods and apparatus for precision agriculture operations utilizing real time kinematic global positioning s… | 341 |
| 5 | US20030187560A1 | Methods and apparatus for precision agriculture operations utilizing real time kinematic global positioning s… | 326 |
| 6 | US20040233855A1 | Ad-hoc network and method of routing communications in a communication network | 305 |
| 7 | US6397147B1 | Relative GPS positioning using a single GPS receiver with internally generated differential correction terms | 244 |
| 8 | US6236907B1 | System and method for creating agricultural decision and application maps for automated agricultural machines | 219 |
| 9 | US6606542B2 | System and method for creating agricultural decision and application maps for automated agricultural machines | 185 |
| 10 | US20210158041A1 | Apparatus and method for agricultural data collection and agricultural operations | 140 |
Citation counts favour older records that have had more time to accumulate citations within this searched corpus — read them as a signal of influence on subsequent filings, not as a ranking of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three patterns worth acting on rather than just noting.
Growth is real, not a publication artefact
The 210-to-366 move across 2021-2024 uses only complete years, so it is not inflated by the lag that understates 2025-2026. A field growing this fast over three years is still actively contested — new claims are being staked now, not settled.
No single assignee controls the field
Even the leader's 340 records sit inside a top 5 that totals only 23.5% of all records in scope, and the top 10 only reaches 28.9%. Most of the corpus sits with single- and low-volume filers, which means freedom-to-operate analysis cannot rely on clearing a handful of large portfolios.
Software claims now frame agronomic patents
G06Q outranks the core horticulture class A01G (23.4%) and the AI class G06N (21.3%). Claims increasingly wrap sensing and agronomic data inside data-processing or business-method language, which changes both where prior art searches should look and how claims should be drafted to survive subject-matter scrutiny.
India leads receiving-office volume
India's 1,350 filings outweigh the United States (364), WIPO (271) and Europe (212) combined receiving-office counts in this scope. Enforcement and competitive-monitoring strategy that ignores the Indian Patent Office is missing the largest single filing venue in this field.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to agriculture, forestry, fisheries & animal health patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where momentum is shifting
The ranked leaders span agrochemical majors, seed and equipment companies, and a growing cluster of Indian universities filing under their own name.
A single large portfolio, still a minority share
The leading assignee holds 340 records on its own, more than double the fifth-place count of 42 — but even at that scale it is one name inside a field where the top 5 combined reach only 23.5% of all 2,744 records.
University filers are the fastest-moving group
SR University moved from a smaller base to 22 records in the latest year, a 214% year-on-year jump, while Chandigarh University's filings fell 41% over the same period. Academic filers are volatile year to year, but collectively they are adding volume faster than several corporate names in this ranking.
Co-filing is rare and concentrated
Only six co-assignee pairs appear across the corpus, and the strongest pair links two units within the same corporate family. Co-filing is not yet a common strategy in this field, which means most competitive intelligence should track single assignees rather than joint-venture structures.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| SR UNIVERSITY | 22 | +214% |
| CHANDIGARH UNIVERSITY | 10 | -41% |
| Bayer AG | 2 | -80% |
| Lovely Professional University | 1 | -96% |
| Deere & Co | 1 | -67% |
| BASF SE | 0 | -100% |
| PI Industries Ltd | 0 | -100% |
| KWS SAAT SE & Co. KGaA | 0 | — |
Where to take this next
The dataset points to specific next steps rather than a general watch-and-wait.
Map claim scope inside G06Q and G06N
With 29.8% of records carrying business/data-processing classes and 21.3% carrying AI-model classes, the software layer on top of agronomic sensing is where new claim conflicts are most likely to surface next.
Explore technology claims in Eureka →Build freedom-to-operate around the long tail
Because the top 10 assignees hold only 28.9% of all 2,744 records, an FTO review that only clears large portfolios will miss most of the field. A tail-aware search strategy is needed.
Run a freedom-to-operate search in Eureka →Prioritise India-office prior art
India's 1,350 receiving-office filings make it the largest single venue in this scope, ahead of the US, WIPO and Europe combined receiving counts.
Search India-office filings in Eureka →Frequently asked questions
The ranking is led by a single assignee with 340 records, well ahead of the fifth-place filer at 42. However, the top 5 assignees combined only reach 23.5% of all 2,744 records in scope, and the top 10 reach 28.9%, so no single company or small group controls the field. The remainder of the 100 ranked assignees form a long tail of moderate- and single-filing entrants, including several Indian universities filing directly rather than through corporate research arms.
Filing grew substantially over the last complete reporting period: from 210 records in 2021 to 366 in 2024, a 74% increase. 2025 shows a higher raw count (692) and 2026 a partial-year count (380), but both later years are understated because publication typically lags filing by about 18 months, so they should not be read as a slowdown. The reliable growth signal is the 2021-2024 span.
Business and data-processing classifications (G06Q) appear on 29.8% of the 2,744 records, ahead of horticulture and forestry (A01G, 23.4%) and AI-based computing (G06N, 21.3%). Agrochemical and biocide classes (A01N, A01P) and soil-working equipment (A01B) also carry substantial shares. Because a single record can carry several IPC classes, these percentages are each measured against the full record total rather than against each other, and they do not sum to 100%.
Sub-areas within the scoped branches show noticeably thinner claim density than the core horticulture, biocide and data-processing classes — examples include crop-coefficient forecasting models, closed-loop variable-rate irrigation control, veterinary diagnostic biosensors, post-harvest cold-chain sensing, and forestry-specific autonomous equipment. These sit adjacent to heavily claimed classes but have not attracted the same filing volume, which is where a first, well-drafted claim has more room to stand without colliding with dense prior art.
US11953872B2, assigned to Manna Irrigation, covers methods and systems for managing precise agricultural irrigation using crop coefficient (Kc) values, including near-real-time and forecast values. It sits in the same technical space as several of the most-cited older records in this corpus, which also address real-time kinematic positioning and closed-loop irrigation control, so a freedom-to-operate review for irrigation-management software should check this patent's specific Kc-value claim language against any forecast-based scheduling feature being built. It does not, on its own, cover irrigation hardware or positioning systems outside that specific claim scope.
India is the largest single receiving office in this scope with 1,350 filings, ahead of the United States (364), WIPO's PCT route (271), Europe (212), Australia (79) and Canada (64). A monitoring or enforcement strategy that skips India-office activity is missing the largest venue in the field. The US and PCT routes remain important for corporate assignees seeking broader multi-jurisdiction coverage.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.