A review of the use of models of weed control in Integrated Crop Protection

An examination is made of the role that mathematical modelling can have in developing integrated strategies, involving reduced dependence on chemicals, for controlling weeds, pests and diseases in crops. From a detailed survey of the application of models to weed control, it is concluded that modelling has fundamentally been concerned with answering issues that contribute comparatively little to our understanding of ‘sustainable’ systems of crop protection. There has been a strong concentration of effort on simulating the impacts of herbicides and on identifying ‘threshold’ levels for spraying. Issues such as herbicide resistance, weed-crop interference and integrated weed management systems have received scant attention. None-the-less, given the complexity of the management systems involved in Integrated Crop Protection, mathematical modelling would seem to be a potentially valuable tool. In the case of some forms of control, such as biological and genetic, it is also arguable that modelling the consequences is imperative, given the potential risks involved.