A review on challenges and emerging opportunities for weed management in organic agriculture

Abstract

Weed control is the most difficult and enduring challenge in organic crop production systems. Managing weeds below economic thresholds is critical since most growers face significant yield penalty during the initial years of organic transition. There is renewed interest in using integrated weed management strategies that involve cultural, mechanical, biological and biochemical approaches to support crop production and enhance ecosystem services. Here, we discuss current weed management issues faced by organic growers such as soil and water conservation, farming systems and farm characteristics, farmers perception of weeds, climate change impact and species shift and technology availability and cost. Emerging opportunities such as cultural (stale seedbed, agronomic configurations, mulching, crop rotation and conservation tillage), mechanical (hoeing, soil solarization, hot water treatment, flame weeding and electrocution), biochemical (organically derived herbicides, fatty acids and allelopathic effect), biological (insect herbivores, plant pathogens, and microbial bioherbicides) and other novel technologies (precision farming, lasers and robotics) is also discussed, which may improve weed management while maximizing ecosystem services Dhakal et al. (2024) [13].