Pesticides have underpinned significant improvements in global food security, albeit with associated environmental costs. Currently, the yield benefits of pesticides are threatened as overuse has led to wide-scale evolution of resistance. Yet despite this threat, there are no large-scale estimates of crop yield losses or economic costs due to resistance. Here, we combine nationalscale density and resistance data for the weed Alopecurus myosuroides (black-grass) with crop yield maps and a new economic model to estimate that the annual cost of resistance in England is £0.4bn in lost gross profit (2014 prices), and annual wheat yield loss due to resistance is 0.8 million tonnes. A total loss of herbicide control against black-grass would cost £1bn and 3.4 million tonnes of lost wheat yield annually. Worldwide, there are 253 herbicide-resistant weeds, so the global impact of resistance could be enormous. Our research provides an urgent case for national-scale planning to combat further evolution of resistance, and an incentive for policies focused on increasing yields through more sustainable food-production systems rather than relying so heavily on herbicides. Resistance to xenobiotics (e.g. antibiotics, antimycotics, pesticides), caused by high frequency of application 1-4 , is a severe and growing economic 5 , food security 1,6 and public Users may view, print, copy, and download text and data-mine the content in such documents, for the purposes of academic research, subject always to the full Conditions of use:
Th e study focuses on the environmental problem of diff use pollution from agriculture (DPA) as a result of the land use and the policy intervention that can be used to mitigate the problem. Attention is paid to the use of economic instruments (EIs) in policies concerning the DPA. Also, policy options, the advantages and disadvantages of the EIs and their assessment are looked at.
Crop rotation is a non-chemical strategy adopted by farmers to manage weeds. However, not all crops in a rotation are equally profitable. Thus, there is potentially a trade-off between the costs and benefits of this strategy. The objective of the current study is to quantify this trade-off for the rotational control of an important weed (Alopecurus myosuroides). Data from 745 farms were used to parameterize a farm-level mixed-integer goal-programming model of the economics of spring cropping for weed control in UK agriculture. On average, the short-term loss of profit from spring cropping is greater than the benefits in terms of reduced herbicide usage and yield increases. These costs are greater when weed densities are low, so that spring cropping is an expensive strategy in the early stages of an infestation. However, there is a great deal of farm-to-farm variation: factors such as soil type and farm size are important and the current study highlights that economic modelling at the farm level is important in enabling farmers to make informed decisions. In general, however, if spring cropping is to be a successful strategy then the benefits to farmers will be in terms of long-term reductions in weed densities, but this will be at the expense of short-term profitability.
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