Modern techniques, avenues for integrated weed management

Abstract

Current awareness of the impact on the environment through intensive agriculture. It is primarily pesticides and herbicides that are known to have driven the research community and government institutions Programming and development of new environmental-friendly agronomic practices for weed control. This has resulted in integrated weed management and IPM becoming mandatory. Weeds are generally considered to be the most important biotic factor affecting crop production especially in organic farming. This review aims to satisfy that need by outlining the fundamentals of integrated weed management (IWM)/non-chemical weed control and its application to the development of optimal strategies for herbaceous field crops such as ecological weed control, mechanical weeding, mulching, intercropping, cover crops, grow allelopathic crop and bioherbicide. Integrated weed management, inclusive of application of bio-herbicides, is an emerging strategy for weed control toward sustainable agriculture. Generally, bio-herbicides are either obtained from plants containing phytotoxic allelochemicals or some disease-carrying microbes which can suppress weed populations. Although bio-herbicides showed immense potential to deter weed seed germination and growth, only a few in vitro studies have been carried out on the physiological responses they elicit in weeds. Number of commercial bioherbicide products available currently, the impact of bioherbicides on weed physiology, and factors that may influence their efficacy.