Nonconventional Weed Management Strategies for Modern Agriculture

Abstract

Weeds are a significant problem in crop production and their management in modern agriculture is crucial to avoid yield losses and ensure food security. Intensive agricultural practices, changing climate, and natural disasters affect weed dynamics and that requires a change in weed management protocols. The existing manual control options are no longer viable because of labor shortages; chemical control options are limited by ecodegradation, health hazards, and development of herbicide resistance in weeds. We are therefore reviewing some potential nonconventional weed management strategies for modern agriculture that are viable, feasible, and efficient. Improvement in tillage regimes has long been identified as an impressive weed-control measure. Harvest weed seed control and seed predation have been shown as potential tools for reducing weed emergence and seed bank reserves. Development in the field of allelopathy for weed management has led to new techniques for weed control. The remarkable role of biotechnological advancements in developing herbicide-resistant crops, bioherbicides, and harnessing the allelopathic potential of crops is also worth mentioning in a modern weed management program. Thermal weed management has also been observed as a useful technique, especially under conservation agriculture systems. Last, precision weed management has been elaborated with sufficient details. The role of remote sensing, modeling, and robotics as an integral part of precision weed management has been highlighted in a realistic manner. All these strategies are viable for today's agriculture; however, site-specific selection and the use of right combinations will be the key to success. No single strategy is perfect, and therefore an integrated approach may provide better results. Future research is needed to explore the potential of these strategies and to optimize them on technological and cultural bases. The adoption of such methods may improve the efficiency of cropping systems under sustainable and conservation practices.

Allelopathy: driving mechanisms governing its activity in agriculture

“…The use of cover crops is probably the most common form of allelopathy knowledge used for weed suppression in organic agroecosystems (Wortman et al 2013). Organic farming can involve reduced weed infestation by intercropping plant species with an allelopathic potential or using plant extracts (Wortman et al 2013;Bajwa et al 2015).…”

Selection, isolation, and identification of fungi for bioherbicide production

“…Weeds are a significant problem in crop production, and their management is crucial for modern agriculture to avoid yield losses and to ensure food safety. Traditional chemical control options are limited due to ecodegradation, health hazards, and the development of herbicide resistance in weeds 5 . Herbicide-resistant weeds are the main problem in weed control due to the number of weed biotypes resistant to herbicides that constantly increases by the continuous use of the same products for years 6 .…”

Interference of allelopathic rice with penoxsulam‐resistant barnyardgrass

“…In particular, the over‐reliance on herbicides can lead to the evolution of herbicide‐resistant weeds, the increased global incidence of which poses a major threat to crop production . In this regard, a non‐herbicidal alternative, such as crop allelopathy, has been advocated for integrated weed management . Allelopathic crop cultivars release their own ‘herbicides’ (i.e.…”