FAO: Weeds are Farmers' Enemy Number One

Food security faces risk not just from floods, droughts, pests and diseases but also from an unnoticed threat: weeds. According to a report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), weeds are causing USD 95 billion a year in lost food production worldwide. At today's prices, this translates into some 380 million tons of wheat, or more than half of world production expected in 2009. FAO estimated that out of this USD 95 billion, 70 billion or more than 70 percent is lost in poor countries.

FAO's weed expert, Ricardo Labrada-Romero said weeds do not grab attention as much as droughts, insects and diseases because they are not very spectacular. "Weeds are different," says Labrada-Romero. "They play havoc quietly all year round, year after year." Some weed species can not only lead to complete crop failure but also make fields infertile for many years.

Weeds are the number one cause of stagnating yields and production particularly in Africa. "With only manual labor available, African smallholders need to weed every day and that means a family physically can't handle more than 1-1.5 hectares," Labrada-Romero explains. "But proper management would allow them to farm more land and grow more food." Farmers need to apply a range of measures to tackle the problem, including crop rotation, use of certified, quality seeds, soil solarization, or the use of polyethylene plastic to increase soil temperatures during the hot summer months, and the use of biological control methods.

Read the original story at http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/29402/icode/