Exploring the effects of glyphosate products on weed composition

Abstract

Glyphosate is a non-selective, broad-spectrum, systematic herbicide that is the world’s most widely used herbicide since its introduction in the 1970s as a pre-plant, post-directed and post-harvest herbicide application with further technological developments leading to its use within glyphosate resistant crops (GRCs) as of the 1990s. In countries around the world, weed shifts have accompanied weed management systems employing glyphosate products. The farmer actions and weed reactions that have contributed to these weed shifts will be discussed. Evidence of glyphosate-induced weed shifts has not yet been documented in Germany, but through consideration of the conditions that have lead to glyphosate-induced weed shifts elsewhere the outlook for Germany will be assessed. An ongoing research project will be introduced in which weed monitoring is being employed to find out if glyphosate-induced weed shifts can be identified in northeastern German arable farm fields and in which field experiments are also being conducted to further explore the reactions of weed communities and populations under the intensive application of glyphosate products.

Keywords

• arable farming
• Germany
• glyphosate
• weed shift