Until now, no consolidated guide existed for understanding how biological products are regulated from one country to the next. The Compendium addresses this gap, bringing together national context, regulatory authorities, registration pathways, and post-market obligations for each jurisdiction it covers, with every summary supported by direct links to the primary legislation and guidance behind it.

Each chapter follows the same structure, so readers can move between jurisdictions and compare systems between countries. That visibility is a precondition for regulatory harmonization: before approaches can converge, stakeholders need to see clearly how their counterparts elsewhere define, classify, and oversee these products. The need is especially acute for biological products, which resist tidy categories. A single microbial product can act as both a biofertilizer and a biostimulant, and what is treated as a biostimulant in one market may be regulated as a plant growth regulator, or a pesticide, in another.

Researched and authored by Terry Stone, Founder of Stone Biological Solutions, the Compendium was published under AFSI’s policy of external review for self-published works. Sections were shared with regional experts in each part of the world it covers, whose feedback strengthened the accuracy, practical utility, and jurisdictional context of the information presented. The contributing reviewers are listed and acknowledged at the beginning of the document.

Regulations change, guidance evolves, and new technologies continue to test existing frameworks. For a comparative resource, staying current is what keeps it useful. A snapshot that drifts out of date cannot support the kind of clear, like-for-like comparison this resource is built to enable. AFSI intends to maintain the Compendium as a core resource of our biologicals program, updating and expanding it as the field develops. An interactive web version is in development and will follow later this year.