English

K Muli Gideon,Hanyabui Emmanuel,Murongo Marius,O Apori Samuel,Ssekandi Joseph

doi:10.5897/ajar2020.15267

Abstract

Weeds are considered a pest that is detrimental to human interest. Weeds compete with cultivated and desirable plants for space, soil nutrient, and sunlight and soil moisture thereby reducing crop productivity. Weeds also serve as a host for pests and pathogens that cause plant diseases. Weeds typically produce large numbers of seeds, assisting their spread, and rapidly invade disturbed sites. Seeds spread into natural and disturbed environments, via wind, waterways, people, vehicles, machinery, birds and other animals. To prevent the effect of weeds on crop productivity, farmers mostly use a linear approach for weed management. The linear view approach aims at eradicating weeds without concern about the environment. This paper reviews the effects of the linear view approach of weed management in the agro-ecosystem. A review using forty-one articles reveals that herbicides application, bush burning and soil tillage are the most often used linear view approach for controlling weeds in the farm ecosystem. The paper highlights the contribution of these weed control methods to climate change through loss of biodiversity, pollution of water bodies, soil degradation, deterioration of fruit quality and release of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Key words: Herbicides, biodiversity, bush burning, soil tillage.

Highlights

A weed is any plant growing in the wrong place, that is, undesirable areas and conflicts with human interest
According to Gaupp-Berghausen et al (2015), glyphosate-based herbicides reduce the activity and the reproduction of earthworms and lead to the rising of soil nutrient concentrations
Herbicide concentration takes advantage of the cation exchange capacity (CEC) of the soil and bind to the soil colloids. This concentration can be maintained at toxic levels. These toxic levels leave behind chemical residues which could dissolve into the available groundwater since the herbicides bind with the soil colloids and are less available to crops (Johnson and Colmer, 1955)

Summary

INTRODUCTION

A weed is any plant growing in the wrong place, that is, undesirable areas and conflicts with human interest. According to Gaupp-Berghausen et al (2015), glyphosate-based herbicides reduce the activity and the reproduction of earthworms and lead to the rising of soil nutrient concentrations. This concentration can be maintained at toxic levels These toxic levels leave behind chemical residues which could dissolve into the available groundwater since the herbicides bind with the soil colloids and are less available to crops (Johnson and Colmer, 1955). Soil biodiversity brings out the variability among living organisms such as fungi, bacteria, and protozoa in the soil The application of both pre-plant, pre-emergent, and post-emergent herbicides in crop production impacts soil biodiversity. Water inhabiting animals like fish have had to tolerate weed killers from agronomic activities that have been washed into the water bodies (Mullison, 1970)

Key findings

Conclusion