Eco-Friendly Weed Control Options for Sustainable Agriculture

Abstract

Background: Weeds are unwanted plants playing a very important role in different eco-systems and many of them cause enormous direct and indirect losses. The losses include interference with cultivation of crops, loss of biodiversity, loss of potentially productive lands, loss of grazing areas and livestock production, erosion following fires in heavily invaded areas, choking of navigational and irrigation canals and reduction of available water in water bodies. Weed management takes away nearly one third of total cost of production of field crops. In India, the manual method of weed control is quite popular and effective. Of late, labour has become non-availability and costly, due to intensification, diversification of agriculture and urbanization. The usage of herbicides in India and elsewhere in the world is increasing due to possible benefits to farmers and continuous use of the same group of herbicides over a period of time on a same piece of land leads to ecological imbalance in terms of weed shift and environmental pollution. The complexity of these situations has resulted in a need to develop a wholistic sustainable eco-friendly weed management programme throughout the farming period. Objectives: This study reviews the different approaches used in sustainable weed control options. Conclusion: Sustainable farming has the ability to save the natural resources for the future and develop the farm in the little expense, a transition to sustainable weed control is required for environmental, social and economic reasons and sustainable weed management is socially acceptable, environmentally benign and cost-effective.

Three Active Phytotoxic Compounds from the Leaves of Albizia richardiana (Voigt.) King and Prain for the Development of Bioherbicides to Control Weeds

“…When weeds grow contemporaneously with crops, they decrease the productivity of those crops or reduce the quality of the harvested product because of competition for sunlight, water, space, and nutrients [5]. Weeds are regarded as a major pest, which is responsible for 45% of crop yield losses, while 25,20,15, and 6% of yield losses are caused by pathogens, insects, storage pests, and rodents, respectively [6]. Bajwa et al [7] also reported that in the absence of weed control methods, yield losses exceed 70%.…”

Evaluation of Biological Response of Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) and Weeds to Safranal Allelochemical of Saffron (Crocus sativus) by Using Static Exposure Method

“…Allelopathy is a biological phenomenon caused by the release of plant-produced toxins or stimuli (allelochemicals) from aerial parts into the phyllosphere or from underground parts into the rhizosphere to influence the growth, survival, or reproduction of other organisms [2]. The search for environmental friendly and economical weed control options has increased the quest for exploring the allelopathic phenomenon by using allelochemicals as bio herbicides in agricultural systems [3,4,5]. Similarly, interest in the use of natural phytochemicals as a resource for developing pharmaceutical and agricultural products has increased dramatically in recent years.…”

Perennial forage legume cultivation and their above-ground mass management methods for weed suppression in arable organic cropping systems

“…The incorporation of red clover mass improved the nutrition and weed-competitiveness of cereals. This practice is widely used in other countries [15]. A significantly Table 5 The effect of perennial forage legumes and their above-ground biomass management methods on the weed density and dry weight, Experiment II lower dry weight of weeds (45% lower) was observed in the experiment that used fermented pea and spring wheat mass.…”