"Weeds are rarely considered a priority despite the fact that all active farmers know that the majority of their variable costs and time are devoted to eradicating them. Even most crop losses due to pests can be traced directly back to weeds, which harbor the pests as secondary hosts.
In the Molecular Biology of Weed Control, Jonathan Gressel focuses attention upon the tools of molecular biology that can be used effectively in the science of weed control. Always keeping his perspective congruent with that of the working farmer, Gressel explains how weed biologists and ecologists are beginning to use recently developed tools to control intransigent weed species in modern as well as less developed areas of the world. With his usual candor, Gressel evaluates past efforts, while also exploring future prospects for replacing chemical herbicides with genetic engineering, to improve a crop's ability to compete against its feral cousins for light, nutrients, and water.
Like much of Gressel's work, this book should be mandatory reading for all agriculturists and plant scientists, so that they employ and encourage what is truly effective and efficient in meeting one of this century's most critical challenges: maximizing agricultural productivity.
- ISBN10 0415266424
- ISBN13 9780415266420
- Publish Date 28 March 2002
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Imprint CRC Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 520
- Language English