Weed management in organic farming for better crop production

Abstract

Weed is an unwanted plant, many reasons for controlling weeds become more complex because weeds complete with crop plants for water, light and nutrient. In organic farming principles and standards preclude the use of most herbicides, many organic farmers consider weeds their most serious barrier to successful organic production and effective organic weed control a top research priority. Weed management in organic farming is elimination of weeds expensive and hard to achieve and it would be appropriate to adopt various methods combination rather than in isolation to manage these weeds from organic source depending upon the nature and intensity of weeds. A good understanding of weed biology, such as morphology, lifecycles, seed production, etc., are essential to effective organic and integrated weed management. The basic approach is to minimize production lose caused by weeds, through weed may exist as part of whole system. In the organic agriculture one may often identify weeds as the key problem. Weed population can increase rapids during the early stages of conversion, although there are evidences that population stability with increased time of organic farming. Weed management techniques leading to less yield reductions and minimum disturbance to environment and understanding of crop-weed ecology and its management is essential for weed control in organic farming system. All means other than synthetic chemicals could be tried to minimize/manage the weeds in the organic production systems.