Acting pre-emptively reduces the long-term costs of managing herbicide resistance
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Acting pre-emptively reduces the long-term costs of managing herbicide resistance. / Varah, Alexa; Ahodo, Kwadjo; Childs, Dylan Z; Comont, David; Crook, Laura; Freckleton, Robert P; Goodsell, Rob; Hicks, Helen L; Hull, Richard; Neve, Paul; Norris, Ken.
In: Scientific Reports, Vol. 14, 6201, 2024.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Acting pre-emptively reduces the long-term costs of managing herbicide resistance
AU - Varah, Alexa
AU - Ahodo, Kwadjo
AU - Childs, Dylan Z
AU - Comont, David
AU - Crook, Laura
AU - Freckleton, Robert P
AU - Goodsell, Rob
AU - Hicks, Helen L
AU - Hull, Richard
AU - Neve, Paul
AU - Norris, Ken
N1 - © 2024. The Author(s).
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - Globally, pesticides improve crop yields but at great environmental cost, and their overuse has caused resistance. This incurs large financial and production losses but, despite this, very diversified farm management that might delay or prevent resistance is uncommon in intensive farming. We asked farmers to design more diversified cropping strategies aimed at controlling herbicide resistance, and estimated resulting weed densities, profits, and yields compared to prevailing practice. Where resistance is low, it is financially viable to diversify pre-emptively; however, once resistance is high, there are financial and production disincentives to adopting diverse rotations. It is therefore as important to manage resistance before it becomes widespread as it is to control it once present. The diverse rotations targeting high resistance used increased herbicide application frequency and volume, contributing to these rotations' lack of financial viability, and raising concerns about glyphosate resistance. Governments should encourage adoption of diverse rotations in areas without resistance. Where resistance is present, governments may wish to incentivise crop diversification despite the drop in wheat production as it is likely to bring environmental co-benefits. Our research suggests we need long-term, proactive, food security planning and more integrated policy-making across farming, environment, and health arenas.
AB - Globally, pesticides improve crop yields but at great environmental cost, and their overuse has caused resistance. This incurs large financial and production losses but, despite this, very diversified farm management that might delay or prevent resistance is uncommon in intensive farming. We asked farmers to design more diversified cropping strategies aimed at controlling herbicide resistance, and estimated resulting weed densities, profits, and yields compared to prevailing practice. Where resistance is low, it is financially viable to diversify pre-emptively; however, once resistance is high, there are financial and production disincentives to adopting diverse rotations. It is therefore as important to manage resistance before it becomes widespread as it is to control it once present. The diverse rotations targeting high resistance used increased herbicide application frequency and volume, contributing to these rotations' lack of financial viability, and raising concerns about glyphosate resistance. Governments should encourage adoption of diverse rotations in areas without resistance. Where resistance is present, governments may wish to incentivise crop diversification despite the drop in wheat production as it is likely to bring environmental co-benefits. Our research suggests we need long-term, proactive, food security planning and more integrated policy-making across farming, environment, and health arenas.
KW - Weed Control/methods
KW - Herbicide Resistance
KW - Crops, Agricultural
KW - Herbicides/pharmacology
KW - Glyphosate
KW - Agriculture/methods
KW - Plant Weeds
U2 - 10.1038/s41598-024-56525-0
DO - 10.1038/s41598-024-56525-0
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 38485959
VL - 14
JO - Scientific Reports
JF - Scientific Reports
SN - 2045-2322
M1 - 6201
ER -
ID: 389363043