Integrated Weed Management in Herbaceous Field Crops

Abstract

Current awareness about the environmental impact of intensive agriculture, mainly pesticides and herbicides, has driven the research community and the government institutions to program and develop new eco-friendly agronomic practices for pest control. In this scenario, integrated pest management and integrated weed management (IWM) have become mandatory. Weeds are commonly recognized as the most important biotic factor affecting crop production, especially in organic farming and low-input agriculture. In herbaceous field crops, comprising a wide diversity of plant species playing a significant economic importance, a compendium of the specific IWM systems is missing, that, on the contrary, have been developed for single species. The main goal of this review is to fill such gap by discussing the general principles and basic aspects of IWM to develop the most appropriate strategy for herbaceous field crops. In particular, a 4-step approach is proposed: (i) prevention, based on the management of the soil seedbank and the improvement of the crop competitiveness against weeds, (ii) weed mapping, aiming at knowing the biological and ecological characteristics of weeds present in the field, (iii) the decision-making process on the basis of the critical period of weed control and weed thresholds and iv) direct control (mechanical, physical, biological and chemical). Moreover, the last paragraph discusses and suggests possible integrations of allelopathic mechanisms in IWM systems.

Phytotoxicity, Morphological, and Metabolic Effects of the Sesquiterpenoid Nerolidol on Arabidopsis thaliana Seedling Roots

“…Nowadays, it is of utmost importance for the use of a combination of agronomic, physical, mechanical, and chemical strategies for weed control in an Integrated Weed Management System (IWMS) [ 11 , 12 ] framework. In particular, the prospect of using secondary plant metabolites as natural herbicides, or as the backbone for herbicide discovery programs is becoming an effective alternative to the classic synthetic herbicides [ 13 ].…”

Management of Infection by Parasitic Weeds: A Review

“…As such, it could create opportunities to obtain control strategies based in biologically derived alternative chemistries, to protect the sustainability of existing resistant mechanisms by creating resistance-enhanced crops through gene pyramiding, and to expand the available number of resistant genes for breeding beyond the limited gene pool of a given crop and its wild interbreeding relatives [ 157 , 163 , 181 ]. Besides the above-mentioned control methods, other non-chemical strategies such as soil fertility amendments or solarization have proven effective in some cases of small-holder farmers or high-value specialty crops [ 2 , 12 , 164 , 182 , 183 , 184 ].…”

Long-Term Effect of Cover Crops on Species Abundance and Diversity of Weed Flora

“…Specialized orchards of the arid or semiarid regions of the Mediterranean basin are often characterized by low levels of soil organic matter and severe weed infestations, which need a frequent use of chemical inputs for their management [1]. In these agroecosystems, weeds represent the most serious constraint to agricultural production, causing serious yield losses due to their highly competitive capacity and allelopathic activity [2,3]. For many decades, they have been controlled almost exclusively through an irrational use of herbicides that, in addition to the negative effects on the environment, humans and animals [4,5], caused a significant reduction of biodiversity [6].…”

“…Nowadays, given the increasing interest in limiting the dependence on herbicides, weed control in croplands is addressing to find ecologically-based practices (e.g., crop rotation, stale seedbed, cover cropping, mechanical and physical methods, etc.) under an integrated approach in a medium-long-term strategy [3]. The basic principle is that weeds are an integral part of the agroecosystem and, thus, they should be managed to reduce their harmful effects and increase benefits [12].…”

“…One of the most common eco-friendly practices, commonly adopted in organic and low-input agricultural systems, is cover cropping, which in the present study is going to include the techniques of mulching, intercropping and green manuring. Indeed, cover crops can be used as living mulches when intercropped between rows in herbaceous crops or on the whole field surface in tree crops, as well as dead mulches either on the soil surface or buried into the soil [3]. In both cases, they prevent weed germination and emergence physically by increasing the competition with weeds and chemically through allelopathic mechanisms [13].…”