Source: Jordan, N. 1996. Weed prevention: priority research for alternative weed management. J. Prod. Agric. 9:485-490.

The public's concern that herbicide use be reduced provides farmers with a tough choice: incorporate preventative weed management practices or eventually lose money. Preventative weed management practices are unique in that, along with eliminating the weeds, the weed seeds are also destroyed. If these practices are incorporated into the farm, it becomes more sustainable. By eliminating future weeds, fewer herbicides and less mechanical cultivation are needed. Unfortunately, the practical preventative practices that are now available provide unreliable results and are only effective in a field with a low weed count. Nicholas Jordan first writes on the importance of preventative weed management, and he then comments on current practices being used and what is wrong with them. He finishes the article with the plea for increasing research on preventative weed management and gives an agenda for this change. Some possible changes are to implement crop rotation and threshold weed management. Threshold weed management is a system where herbicides are sprayed only after the weed count in a field reaches a sufficient level. In order for preventative weed management practices to become widely used, farmer understanding must increase in two ways. They must understand the costs and risks of preventative weed management and also how and why preventative practices work. Promising avenues for research include managing to increase seed mortality and limit weed seed dispersal. Preventive weed control can also be maximized by scheduling the planting of a single crop over several weeks. This allows for cultivation to be done with maximum effectiveness for weed control because it can be better timed. Jordan concludes that preventative weed management research should equal that of herbicide technology research. He also states that the increased use of preventative practices will bring a favorable response from the public.

Abstract Author: Nathan Fischer, 17 November 1997.

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