Abstract
A farm-scale investigation was conducted to evaluate the potential impact of integrating glyphosate into different weed management programs when cultivating herbicide-tolerant maize in central Spain from 2012 to 2014. The weed management programs were (1) a conventional weed management with pre- and post-emergent herbicide applications, (2) a weed management program in which the number and total amount of conventional herbicides applied were reduced, and (3) three weed management programs that comprised either two post-emergent applications of the herbicide glyphosate, or only one glyphosate application combined with pre- and/or post-emergent herbicides. Weed density throughout each cropping season was greater in those weed management programs that did not include a pre-emergence application of herbicides than those that did. Moreover, none of the weed management programs affected the richness and species diversity of the weeds or reduced yields. Although the impact of the different programs was similar in terms of weed species diversity, the composition of the weed community differed and this effect must be considered when providing agroecosystem services. Our results indicate that glyphosate-tolerant maize provides an additional tool that allows integrated weed control of the weed populations without reducing yields.
Highlights
Weeds are competitive threats to crop production
We found that the application often herbicides in prepost-emergence, linked a maize monoculture whose duration is more than years, has ledand to the presence of several to a maizeweed monoculture duration is more thanaveraged ten years,over has the led three to theyears presence of several dominant species. whose
We found a similar level of weed control in the conventional weed management program (Conv) and Pre + Gly programs: the use of a residual herbicide in pre-emergence to remove weeds at the early stages of growth followed by treatment with the non-selective glyphosate in post-emergence resulted in very low weed densities throughout the cropping season
Summary
Weeds are competitive threats to crop production. For maize, the yield loss due to weeds is32%, and this loss is bigger than that due to insects (18%) and pathogens (15%) [1]. Weeds are competitive threats to crop production. 32%, and this loss is bigger than that due to insects (18%) and pathogens (15%) [1]. Herbicides are broadly applied in intensive farming practices for weed control and are used in more than 90% of the areas where maize is produced [4]. Despite their success in increasing crop productivity, this widespread use of PPPs has raised agricultural, environmental, and ecological concerns [5] and increased calls for sustainable pest management.
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