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Global advances in weed management

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 November 2010

J. GRESSEL*
Affiliation:
Department of Plant Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel

Summary

Weeds have been controlled so successfully by herbicides, subsequently supplemented by transgenic herbicide-resistant crops, that past intractable problems have been ignored and new ones are evolving. However, industry-led discovery of new herbicide targets is now lacking and weed science as a discipline is contracting globally. This paper describes novel technologies for dealing with major problems, including: better understanding of weed biology coupled with genomics; novel herbicide-resistant crops as well as engineered weed-competing crops; multi-target herbicides; and enhanced biocontrol agents. Together, these approaches may comprise the components of future integrated packages to slow down the evolution of new weed problems.

Type
Foresight Project on Global Food and Farming Futures
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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