Digital Herbicides Tackle Weeds at the Root
Chemical herbicides were a huge success story in the 20th century, reducing costs and raising yields. However, increased side effects, a reducing number of available herbicides and new technical developments are now very good reasons why alternative weeding technologies are an important
step forward, for many areas of application: The triumph of a very low number of high production herbicides for more than 25 years, sold as an almost low-toxicity, eco-friendly herbicide with no relevant risk of resistance, is coming to an end. Our society is already too eco-friendly to approve
and accept more herbicides with known or presumed side effects. As a result, lower area crops cannot guarantee a sufficient turnover and revenue to make highly specialised and costly herbicide registration a winning game. This means, the number of herbicides applicable (not only) for small
cultures is dramatically shrinking. However, this is not the only reason for the empty herbicide pipeline. Herbicide discovery mode of action is in crisis, and has been so for years. Since 1991, no new principle for herbicidal action has been discovered, whereas the 50 years before had more
than 14 new principles, that is at least one every four years. Additionally, scientists learn more and more about the mechanism of chemical resistance. We see how fast chemical resistance is advancing and spreading worldwide. No-till agriculture has developed very well and effectively represents
an economically efficient and eco-friendly approach to soil conservation although it has been made more possible by the judicious use of herbicides. No-till agriculture requires and deserves eco-friendly and economically viable methods to eliminate weeds down to the roots. There is no way
back to ploughing even if total herbicides are restricted. Using digital electrical power instead of chemical power is a modern trend. We are now entering the decades of electric power. For hundreds of years, we have relied on a chemical basis for our energy use (petrol for cars), information
technology (news printed on paper) and chemical herbicides. But we have learned to handle and transform electric power so much better, transforming it into movement or information without need for paper or liquid fuels. Now we finally have the technology to use high-electric power and electrophysical
engineering to minimize chemical herbicides and eliminate undesirable plants effectively by 'digital' weeding.
Keywords: AGRICULTURE; DIGITAL HERBICIDES; NO-TILL; NON-CHEMICAL WEEDING; PLANTATIONS; RESISTANT WEEDS; SILVICULTURE; URBAN WEEDING
Document Type: Research Article
Publication date: 01 December 2017
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