Weed Management in Conservation Agriculture Systems

There remains considerable uncertainty surrounding the future of effective weed control in agriculture. In Conservation Agriculture (CA) systems where ploughing has been replaced with no-tillage systems, weed management without reliance on herbicides has proven to be even more challenging.

Weed management in Conservation Agriculture systems reviews the range of alternative, non-chemical methods of weed control which can be implemented to improve the productivity and sustainability of CA. These methods include cultural and physical techniques such as allelopathy and thermal weed control. The book also assesses ways of optimising weed control in perennial, horticultural and other crops.

• Considers how weed management can be optimised in an array of different production systems, including perennial Conservation Agriculture (CA) systems and organic CA systems

• Provides a comprehensive overview of the recent research on the use of cultural and physical weed management techniques in CA systems, such as the use of allelopathy and thermal weed control

• Reviews the range of chemical and biological weed management techniques available to CA farmers, including the use of bioherbicides and other emerging methods of biological control

Dr Gottlieb Basch is a Full Professor in the Department of Plant Science at the University of Évora, Portugal. He is President of the European Conservation Agriculture Federation and has contributed to a number of EIP AGRI Focus Groups, EU Horizon and other research projects on more sustainable methods of crop cultivation.

Dr Emilio J. González-Sánchez is Associate Professor in the School for Agriculture and Forestry Engineering at the University of Cordoba, Spain. He is Secretary-General of the European Conservation Agriculture Federation, has coordinated several EU LIFE research projects and has been an international consultant on Conservation Agriculture for the FAO and World Bank.

John Geraghty is a Lecturer at South East Technological University, Ireland. He has over 25 years’ research, development and consulting experience in soil and crop management, including working for the United Nations World Food Programme, with a particular focus on Conservation Agriculture techniques.

Dr Seyed Vahid Eslami is an Associate Professor in the Department of Agronomy and Plant Breeding at the University of Birjand, Iran. He has worked on crop/weed ecology as well as weed behaviour and management strategies for 20 years. He has published widely on crop-weed ecophysiological responses to abiotic stresses such as drought and salinity.

Dr Sjoerd W. Duiker is Professor of Soil Management and Applied Soil Physics at Penn State University, USA. He has made significant contributions to both research and extension in developing more sustainable soil management practices in such areas as no-till systems, the use of cover crops, mulches and more diverse crop rotations. He is a member of the Governing Board of the Northeast Cover Crops Council which brings together universities, farmers, government agencies and others to optimise cover crop use in the north-eastern states of the USA. Professor Duiker is also a co-editor of the forthcoming Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing collection Weed management in Conservation Agriculture systems.

Dr Saidi Mkomwa is Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of the African Conservation Tillage Network with over 30 years‘ experience of developing and promoting Conservation Agriculture techniques in Africa. Amongst other responsibilities he is Chair of the Conservation Agriculture Regional Working Group for Southern Africa. He is based in Kenya.

Dr Marie Bartz is a Researcher in the Centre of Functional Ecology at the University of Coimbra, Portugal. She is also a Visiting Professor at the Federal Technological University of Paraná, Brazil. She has published widely on earthworms and other aspects of soil biodiversity.