Weed management issues, challenges, and opportunities in Malaysia

Abstract

The agriculture sector remains a significant development factor in Malaysia. Oil palm and rubber are the two major crops contributing to national development in terms of export earnings, and rice is vital for the national food consumption. However, weeds continue to be an important constraint for oil palm, rubber, and rice production. Weed management in Malaysia is highly reliant on herbicides; however, other control measures are integrated, including cultural, physical, biological, and mechanical methods. Thus, herbicides accounted for 83% of the total pesticide usage in the year 2014. However, several limitations remain in weed control and these are influenced by several factors, such as labour shortage, evolution of herbicide resistance in weeds, constraints of new modern technology implementation, global climate change, poor policy support, inadequate infrastructure, and rising input costs. This paper explains a number of issues, challenges, and opportunities that are significant for the future role of weed management in the agriculture of Malaysia, especially for the oil palm, rubber, and rice industries.