Experimental and empirical evidence shows that reducing weed control in winter cereal fields is a viable strategy for farmers.

ABSTRACT: Modern agriculture needs a paradigm shift to make the world's food production sustainable while mitigating social and environmental externalities. Although various policies to limit the use of agrochemicals have recently been implemented in the European Union, the use of both herbicides and fertilizers has remained fairly constant. Farmers are assumed to behave optimally, producing the best they can, given the agronomic constraints of their fields. Based on this assumption, reducing agrochemicals should inevitably have negative effects on food production, or reduce farmers' incomes. Coupling empirical analysis based on field surveys and experimental trials where weed management and nitrogen input were manipulated in the same production fields and under real farming conditions, we demonstra

SUBMITTER: Catarino R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6588622 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature