• Login/Join
    • Login
    • Join Agri-TechE
Menu
  • Login/Join
    • Login
    • Join Agri-TechE
  • Home
  • About
    • About Agri-TechE
    • Stakeholder Group
    • Introductions to the agri-tech cluster
    • International
    • Agri-Tech Briefings
      • Controlled Environment Agriculture
      • Gene editing consultation – what does it mean for agri-tech?
      • Controlling light in farming
      • What is ELMs? Agri-Tech to support Environmental Land Management
    • Agri-TechE Newsletters
      • Sign up to the newsletter
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Agri-TechE activities, conferences and missions for 2022
    • REAP Conference 2021
    • Agri-Tech Week
    • Our Publications
  • Articles
    • Agri-tech News
    • Member News
    • Monthly Musings
    • Innovator Spotlight
    • Leaders in the Field
    • Agri-Tech Archives
  • Community
    • Research Digest
    • Opportunity Zone
    • Young Innovators’ Forum
    • Funding Latest
  • Members
    • Directory
    • Become an Agri-TechE Member
    • Member Testimonials
    • Increasing your profile
    • Agri-TechE Member Drop-In
  • Contact Us
Menu
  • Home
  • About
    • About Agri-TechE
    • Stakeholder Group
    • Introductions to the agri-tech cluster
    • International
    • Agri-Tech Briefings
      • Controlled Environment Agriculture
      • Gene editing consultation – what does it mean for agri-tech?
      • Controlling light in farming
      • What is ELMs? Agri-Tech to support Environmental Land Management
    • Agri-TechE Newsletters
      • Sign up to the newsletter
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Agri-TechE activities, conferences and missions for 2022
    • REAP Conference 2021
    • Agri-Tech Week
    • Our Publications
  • Articles
    • Agri-tech News
    • Member News
    • Monthly Musings
    • Innovator Spotlight
    • Leaders in the Field
    • Agri-Tech Archives
  • Community
    • Research Digest
    • Opportunity Zone
    • Young Innovators’ Forum
    • Funding Latest
  • Members
    • Directory
    • Become an Agri-TechE Member
    • Member Testimonials
    • Increasing your profile
    • Agri-TechE Member Drop-In
  • Contact Us

Search

More results…

Generic filters
Exact matches only

  • Research Digest
  • dealing with weeds, herbicides, Rothamsted, weeds

Crops more vulnerable to weeds now than in 1843

  • March 29, 2021
  • 11:52 am

Crops are more vulnerable to weeds now than before the advent of herbicides, according to a new study which says weeds pose an unprecedented threat to our food security.

Crops are more vulnerable to weedsThe Broadbalk winter wheat trials are the world’s longest running experiment. They were established in 1843 to contrast different amounts and combinations of inorganic fertilisers compared with farmyard manure on wheat yields.

Since the mid-1960s, some plots have had herbicides applied and some haven’t. On plots where herbicides have never been used, yield losses to weeds have been consistently increasing since the 1960s.

The team looked at data from 1969 onwards – around the start of the so-called ‘Green Revolution’ when higher yielding wheat cultivars, and increased nitrogen fertiliser use became the norm worldwide.

The data demonstrates that increased global yields were only made possible with a concurrent increase in the use of pesticides.

Researchers from Rothamsted Research found that less than a third of the harvest was lost to weeds in the first ten years of the dataset, but between 2005-2014, this had risen to more than half.

The team say this is due to weeds doing better than crops in a warming climate, coupled with a shift towards shorter crop varieties that get shaded out by the taller weeds.

And just like our crops, many weed species have also benefited over this period from increased use of nitrogen fertilisers.

In addition, more than half a century of consistent chemical spraying has also led to the rise of herbicide resistant weeds, threatening our ability to protect the gains in crop productivity achieved since the 1960s.

Richard Storkey, Rothamsted ResearchLead author, Dr Jonathan Storkey, said: “Reducing yield losses from weeds is increasingly challenging because of the evolution of herbicide resistance and we can no longer rely on herbicides alone to counter the increasing threat from weeds.

“If we compare yield lost to weeds in the first ten years of the dataset weeds ‘robbed’ on average 32 percent of the yield compared to 54 percent in the last ten years of data.

“Our results demonstrate that weeds now represent a greater inherent threat to crop production than before the advent of herbicides and integrated, sustainable solutions to weed management are urgently needed to protect the high yield potential of modern crop varieties.”

The study is published in the journal Global Change Biology.

Agricultural intensification and climate change have increased the threat from weeds
Jonathan Storkey Andrew Mead John Addy Andrew J. MacDonald
23 March 2021 https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15585

Share

Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin
Related Posts
  • Gene boost in battle against black-grass
  • Laser weeding by WeedBot for minimum till cultivation
  • Is time up for blackgrass? MoA Techologies offers multifaceted attack on weeds
  • CROPROTECT App provides decision support for crop protection
  • Willow good for wildlife, environment and biomass
Archives

Agri-TechE on Twitter

Tweets by AgriTechE 

Agri-TechE on Facebook

Agri-TechE

MORE INFORMATION

  • News archive
  • Privacy
  • Events
  • Newsletter sign-up
  • View latest newsletter
Menu
  • News archive
  • Privacy
  • Events
  • Newsletter sign-up
  • View latest newsletter
Twitter Facebook Youtube Linkedin Instagram

© Agri-TechE 2022

Site design by Out of House