IWMPRAISE – An EU Horizon 2020 Project Providing Integrated Weed Management Solutions to European Farmers

Abstract

IWMPRAISE is the first EU Framework Research project focusing solely on weed management. Thirty-eight partners in eight European countries are working together on developing integrated weed management strategies for agricultural and horticultural crops. Per Kudsk, the coordinator of IWMPRAISE, and the work package leaders present the project, the on-going studies and some of the early outputs. Weeds are ubiquitous and cause substantial yield losses across all arable and horticultural systems. Currently, the reliance on herbicides is very high in conventional farming systems and in many European countries herbicides are the single most used group of pesticides (https://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?dataset=aei_fm_salpest09&lang=en). There are several reasons for the high herbicide use, such as lack of threshold-based spraying decisions and lack of any single sufficiently effective, readily applicable, cost-effective non-chemical method. Nonetheless, two factors are driving an immediate need to change weed control practices in conventional farming: the rapidly increasing problem of herbicide resistance, exacerbated by the fact that no new herbicide sites of action have been marketed since the early 1980s, and the expectation that many of the currently used herbicides will be withdrawn from the EU market as they do not meet the human and environmental toxicity criteria set out in EU Regulation 1109/2009. In addition to these two immediate concerns, it has also been shown that herbicides have partly been responsible for recent declines in farmland biodiversity and hence a negative impact on the associated ecosystem services. The over-reliance on chemical control of weeds has highlighted the need for Integrated Weed Management (IWM) strategies that combine non-chemical management options that reduce either weed density or competition with the crop.

Current and future glyphosate use in European agriculture

“…In Australia, and increasingly in other global agroecosystems, several harvest weed seed control (HWSC) tools are widely used to target weed seeds during crop harvest to prevent seedbank inputs (Walsh et al, 2017). While narrow‐window burning cannot be used in Europe due to legal restrictions, the other methods, such as seed destructors (impact mills), chaff tramlining, chaff carts, and the bale‐direct system, have potential as a component in IWM but have yet to be widely used in European agriculture (Kudsk et al, 2020). The potential for HWSC is low to intermediate for early shedding weeds like A. myosuroides or A. spica‐venti or for short stature weeds like Polygonum aviculare .…”

Integrated weed management in grasslands

“…While the conceptual approach of IWM outlined in the study of Kudsk et al (2020) is applicable to all major agricultural systems, weed management in perennial grasslands differs from weed management in annual cropping systems in a number of aspects. First, grasslands tend to form a perennial competitive environment, which, if well managed, only offers a few microsites for weeds to recruit from invading seeds or the soil seed bank (Fig.…”

“…Figure 1 Integrated weed management (IWM) framework for grasslands, consisting of tools that 1) limit seedling establishment in grassland from the soil seed bank or subterranean vegetative organs, 2) limit competition for resources such as light, nutrients and water by removing weeds or reducing their competitive impact, and/or 3) limit return of seeds or vegetative organs to the soil seed/vegetative organ bank or their export to or input from other grasslands. Suitable tools may depend on grassland type and ecoclimatic region (adapted from Kudsk et al 2020).…”

“…Here, we describe the current status of IWM for grasslands by adopting a conceptual approach proposed by Kudsk et al (2020). Its focus is on management practices available to influence transitions 1 from the soil seed bank to seedling establishment; 2 from the seedling stage to the mature plant; and 3 from the mature plant to the soil seed bank.…”

Relay intercropping can efficiently support weed management in cereal-based cropping systems when appropriate legume species are chosen

“…None of the alternative tactics proposed in Integrated Weed Management (IWM) used as sole method for weed control are as effective and easy to use as a well-selected herbicide (MacLaren et al 2020). Therefore, IWM strategies need to be designed based on synergy of different tactics (Kudsk et al 2020), affecting the various phases of the weed's life cycle (seedbank, plantlet and mature weed) as well as aspects of the entire cropping system (diversification, crop selections and management, field management and combinations of direct control measures).…”