Community-Based Approaches to Herbicide-Resistant Weed Management: Lessons from Science and Practice

Abstract

When herbicide-resistant weeds are highly mobile across farms, delaying resistance becomes a common-pool resource (CPR) problem. In such situations, it is in the collective long-term interest of farmers to conserve an herbicide's usefulness. Yet, each farmer has an individual short-run incentive to use the herbicide without considering effects on resistance. This study considers the potential for community-based (CB) approaches to address problems of herbicide-resistant weeds. Here, growers actively participate in designing, financing, and implementing programs, usually in collaboration with industry, government, and universities. CB approaches have certain advantages over top-down regulatory or subsidy-based approaches. Scholars and practitioners have developed effective governance mechanisms for many CPRs that could aid in developing effective resistance management programs. Successful CB management programs for insect pest eradication and areawide invasive weed control offer additional lessons about the potential and challenges of such efforts. Lessons from these examples can inform the design and implementation of successful, voluntary programs for herbicide-resistance management. Key research, education, and outreach priorities to help implement successful CB programs are identified at the close.

Are herbicides a once in a century method of weed control?

“…Because agricultural production is so diffuse, centralized regulatory approaches can have high monitoring and enforcement costs, as well as being difficult politically to implement . There is a substantial body of literature studying how local groups have successfully managed common property resources, avoiding both the tragedy of the commons and top‐down, centralized regulation .…”

“…There is a substantial body of literature studying how local groups have successfully managed common property resources, avoiding both the tragedy of the commons and top‐down, centralized regulation . Several types of these institutions deal with insects and invasive weeds in agriculture . These include grower‐led area‐wide insect control programs, insect eradication programs, area‐wide invasive weed control programs, weed districts, and cooperative pest management areas.…”

An ecological perspective on managing weeds during the great selection for herbicide resistance

“…In a landscape where HT cultivar adoption drives cost‐effective use of a particular herbicide SOA, individual producers would have no incentive to refrain from using that HT cultivar in order to protect the long‐term efficacy of the associated herbicide because they would lose money by using a more expensive program when their neighbors continue to use the HT crop combined with the inexpensive herbicide option. This is an example of a common pool resource problem, also known as the ‘tragedy of the commons,’ and explains how herbicide resistance can become an externality of HT cultivar adoption, since it is not priced into the use of the product . It also demonstrates the current lack of industry stewardship, and future necessity of industry participation in any comprehensive solution to this problem, since the price landscape will need to be altered to affect producer behavior at large landscape scales …”

“…Therefore, considering arable weeds as components of a landscape‐level metapopulation and developing landscape‐scale strategies will be invaluable in the sustainable management of problematic weeds, particularly the ones that are prone to herbicide resistance evolution. Because delaying resistance in an agricultural landscape is a common pool resource problem, a community‐based approach to herbicide resistance management has been promoted as a viable strategy . Given this need, a landscape‐level program for managing Palmer amaranth was initiated in Crittenden and Clay counties in Arkansas, USA .…”

A weed resistance management game: a teaching tool

“…Several socioeconomic factors create barriers to herbicide resistance management . Yet, the game presented here focuses on one in particular – management of herbicide resistance as a common pool resource problem . If HR weeds are mobile across farms, the susceptibility of weeds to herbicides is a resource shared across operators in the community.…”