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...

An image processing algorithm for detecting individual weeds was developed and evaluated. Weed detection processes included were normalized excessive green conversion, statistical threshold value estimation, adaptive image segmentation, median filter, morphological feature calculation and Artificial Neural Network (ANN). The developed algorithm was validated for its ability to identify and dete...

Bellows TS and Fisher TW (eds.) (1999) Handbook of Biological Control: Principles and Applications of Biological Control. San Diego: Academic Press. Clausen CP (ed.) (1978) Agricultural Research Service: Handbook No. 480: Introduced Parasites and Predators of Arthropod Pests and Weeds: A World Review. Washington, DC: USDA: Agricultural Research Service. DeBach P and Rosen D (1991) Biological Co...

Ten insect species were introduced to control five weeds on the island of Mauritius from 1914 to1982. Eight of these (80%) became established. The biocontrol programs against Opuntia vulgaris, O. tuna and Cordia curassavica were completely successful, with all three target plants now not considered as weeds, and requiring no management other than the ongoing, self-sustaining biological control....

Sugar cane growers in Puerto Rico are faced with problems of weed control as any other farmer in the world. He is faced with increased cost of production of cane, through higher labor and material costs. When labor costs were low, much of the weed control was done by many men using machetes and other implements. As every farmer knows "weeds are plants out of place." Since beginning of farming, ...

Limited information is available on control of broadleaf weeds in barley and response of barley cultivars to herbicides. Field experiments were conducted from 2007 to 2009 to evaluate post-emergence herbicides for control of broadleaf weeds in four barley cultivars. Herbicide treatments included 2,4-D sodium salt at 500 g ai ha 1, carfentrazone-ethyl at three rates (15, 20 and 25 g ai ha 1), an...

In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), weeds are estimated to account for rice yield losses of at least 2.2 million tonnes (Mt) per year (Rodenburg and Johnson, 2009). Combined with costs of weed control, the financial losses easily surpass half the cost of current regional rice imports. If not controlled, weeds cause yield losses in the range of 28–74% in transplanted lowland rice, 28–89% in direct-seed...

Three exotic Solanum weeds, Solanum elaeagnifolium Cav., Solanum mauritianum Scop. and Solanum sisymbriifolium Lam. (Solanaceae), are targets for biological control in South Africa. Preintroduction surveys of the insect herbivores attacking these, as well as native and cultivated species of Solanum, have proved useful in several ways. Although there is a diverse, mainly oligophagous, herbivore ...

The USA and South Africa are among the world’s leading biological weed control countries. By 1998, seventy-three biocontrol agents had been released on thirty-six weeds in USA mainland and by 1999, eighty-two agents on forty-seven weeds in South Africa. The early Hawaiian projects served as a training school and source of tested biocontrol agents for other countries. In South Africa, nineteen o...