Abstract
Throughout Europe, Cirsium arvense is the most problematic perennial weed in arable crops, whether managed under organic or conventional agriculture. Non-chemical control methods are limited with partial efficacy. Knowledge is missing on their effect across a wide gradient of cropping systems and pedoclimates. To achieve effective Cirsium arvense management ensuring crop productivity while limiting the reliance of cropping systems on herbicide, expert-based models are needed to gather knowledge on the effect of individual levers and their interactions in order to (i) design and assess finely tuned combinations of farming practices in different pedoclimates and (ii) support decisions for Cirsium arvense control. Based on expert-knowledge and literature, we developed IPSIM-Cirsium, a hierarchical qualitative model which evaluates the infestation of Cirsium arvense as a function of farming practices, climate conditions, soil descriptors and their interactions. IPSIM-Cirsium is a multi-attribute model considering all possibilities of interactions between factors, it estimates the infestation rate of the field graded according to a four-level scale. The model outputs were confronted to independent field observations collected across 6 fields, over a 16-year period in 3 sites. IPSIM-Cirsium showed a satisfactory predictive quality (accuracy of 78.2%). IPSIM-Cirsium can be used as a tool for crop advisors and researchers to assist the design of systems less reliant on herbicides, for farmers and advisers to assess ex-ante prototypes of cropping systems, and for teachers as an educational tool to share agroecological weed management knowledge.
Highlights
Weed management is essential to limit their harmfulness against crops such as yield loss, decline of crop harvest quality and harvest difficulties (Colbach et al, 2021)
Our objectives are: (i) to identify the most significant cropping practices and pedoclimate variables, and their combinations impacting the growth of C. arvense, (ii) to better understand their efficacy to replace chemical-only control methods, (iii) to determine interactions between cropping practices and pedoclimate to tackle the complexity of a limited part of agroecosystems, and (iv) to develop an evaluation tool for farmers and advisers through a consensual model, simple to use
Cropping practices refer to all the cultivation techniques used in the process of crop production, pedoclimate refer to the soil and weather components impacting the development of the considered pest, and field environment to the abiotic or biotic factors encountered in the field surroundings
Summary
Weed management is essential to limit their harmfulness against crops such as yield loss, decline of crop harvest quality and harvest difficulties (Colbach et al, 2021). Nowadays, weed management relies on herbicides, and its intensive use raises concern on public health, soil-waterair contamination, biodiversity maintenance (Stoate et al, 2009), and development of herbicide resistance (Powles and Yu, 2010). Decreasing herbicide use while ensuring crop productivity and economic profitability of farming systems requires a deep redesign of cropping systems implementing ‘many little hammers’ to curtail weed population increase (Liebman et al, 1997). The management of perennial weeds remain of high concern in integrated cropping systems (Favrelière et al, 2020). Most herbicide-free weed management levers rely on intensive tillage, high diversity of crop in the crop sequence and increased competitiveness with subsidiary crops (Lukashyk et al, 2008; Brandsæter et al, 2012; Melander et al, 2012; Miller, 2016). Despite existing knowledge on particular levers and their effect with long-term perspectives, information on long-term combination of multiple levers in various production contexts remains scarce because the effect of interactions between cropping practices and pedoclimate remain only partially known
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