Plant growth regulators are expected to play an important role in the efforts to double the world food supply by the end of this century. Although the search for plant growth regulators differs in numerous ways from that for pesticides, it lends itself to more (crop) specific, concentrated, and directed efforts that can be utilized on a smaller scale by smaller companies and countries. The diversity of effects already established for plant growth regulators promises a continuing optimistic future for them with considerable savings in energy and costs. Increasing the yield of a crop for a given area of land through their use means incremental gain, the only outlay for which is usually the cost of the plant growth regulator and its application and sometimes, extra processing costs.

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