Weed suppression in legumes for stress management

Worldwide, weeds constitute a major constraint to the production of food legumes. Weeds can reduce crop yields more than 50% through competition for moisture, and this can be aggravated under the anticipated climate change scenarios. In the future, the spread of invasive alien species of weeds and herbicide resistance, which are partly aggravated by increased global trade and climate change, are likely to pose challenges to weed management and water conservation. In this chapter we will synthesize the state-of-art knowledge on weed management in legume production systems with a major emphasis on anticipated impacts of climate change and alien invasive species on weed management and water conservation. We provide a brief review of the types of weeds and weed effects followed by review of recent developments in the management of weeds in legume cropping systems. We also assess the strength and limitations of each practice and suggest the need for emphasis on the integration of different environmentally friendly control measures that are economically feasible to smallholder farmer

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DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3709-1-14

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