Automation for the identification of plants, based on imaging sensors, in agricultural crops represents an important challenge. In maize fields, site-specific treatments, with chemical products or mechanical manipulations, can be applied for weeds elimination. This requires the identification of weeds and crop plants. Sometimes these plants appear impregnated by materials coming from the soil (...

An important objective in weed management is the discrimination between grasses (monocots) and broad-leaved weeds (dicots), because these two weed groups can be appropriately controlled by specific herbicides. In fact, efficiency is higher if selective treatment is performed for each type of infestation instead of using a broadcast herbicide on the whole surface. This work proposes a strategy w...

Weed control efficacy of three herbicides recently registered for use in the South African Sugar Industry is discussed and the phytotoxic effects on sugarcane are presented. Destun, with or without atrazine, is a safe pre-emergence treatment which is useful for the control of Cyperus esculentus, grasses and broadleaf weeds, while some activity on Cyperus rotundus has also been recorded. Dual + ...

Insect host range affects risk assessment for biological control agents of weeds and invasive insects, including the cost benefit analyses that are used for determining government responses to new incursions, and for justifying biological control introductions against weeds. This project had three objectives, starting with an examination of scientific contradictions between predictions and fiel...

Agriculture is the process of managing plant communities to obtain useful materials from the small set of species we call crops. Weeds comprise the “other” set of plant species found in agroecosystems. Although they are not intentionally sown, weed species are well adapted to environments dominated by humans and have been associated with crop production since the origins of agriculture (Harlan,...

The present paper reviews current knowledge on how changes of plant metabolism under elevated CO2 concentrations (e[CO2]) can affect the development of the glyphosate resistance of C3 and C4 weeds. Among the chemical herbicides, glyphosate, which is a non-selective and post-emergence herbicide, is currently the most widely used herbicide in global agriculture. As a consequence, glyphosate resis...

Farmers need alternatives for weed control due to the desire to reduce chemicals used in farming. However, conventional mechanical cultivation cannot selectively remove weeds located in the seedline between crop plants and there are no selective herbicides for some crop/weed situations. Since hand labor is costly, an automated weed control system could be feasible. A robotic weed control system...