Slowing weed evolution with integrated weed management

Abstract

For millennia, weeds have slowly evolved in response to ever-changing environments and crop production practices. Weeds are now evolving much more quickly due to consistently repeated cropping systems and intense herbicide selection pressures. Weed resistance to herbicides now threatens cropping system sustainability in several industrialized nations. Integrated weed management (IWM) provides opportunities to reduce selection pressure for weed resistance while maintaining current crop yields. Combining optimal IWM tactics that discourage weeds by minimizing disturbance (no till, directseeding), adopting diverse crop rotations, and attempting to preclude resource acquisition by weeds are encouraged. New research knowledge on practical IWM systems is available, but despite current and looming threats of major weed resistance, most crop producers will require greater incentives than those currently available to more-fully adopt IWM systems in the near future.