MYCOHERBICIDES - A ECO FRIENDLY WAY OF WEED MANAGEMENT

摘要

Management of weeds is really a big task in crop cultivation. Out of several factors responsible for decrease in crop yield, weeds in crop plants contribute to a maximum extent of 45% - 50%. Of the nearly 3 lakh species of higher plants in this world,only 10% are weeds. Of these, 200 weed species are responsible for 95% of economic losses caused by the weeds in agricultural production (Misra, H.P., 2005). Non availability of adequate manual labour and lack of use of mechanical weeder force, the farmer has to go for synthetic chemical herbicide application or leave the crop unweeded and accept lower yield of crops. Chemical herbicides that have revolutionized modern agriculture, when applied to soil, have several harmful and negative effects on bothhuman and animal health. In highly developed countries over usage of chemical herbicide has led to many problems like swing in weed flora, occurrence of new problematic weeds and residues of herbicides affecting soil micro fauna and flora (in turn soilhealth), aquatic fauna and flora and terrestrial and aquatic birds. Alternately, fungal herbicides prepared from fungal pathogens manage specific weeds and continue to survive on weeds year after year over long period unlike chemical herbicides that need to be applied repeatedly.