FAO Regional Course on Weed Ecology and Competition

The course took place in Bangkok from 20 to 28 March, 2000. Specialists from Bangla Desh, China, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, Thailand and Vietnam participated in the course. The trainers were Drs Christian Andreasen, Maurizio Sattin and Ricardo Labrada.

The main issues imparted and discussed were as follows:

Weed Concept
Characteristics and damage caused by weeds
Weed Classification
Weed Origin, Life Cycle (Demography, weed seed bank, seedling recruitment and survival)
Methods for studies of Weed Ecology
Methods to evaluate weed densities
Interference (Competition, Alelopathy and Parasitism)
Weed competition
Methods to study weed competition
Methods to estimate weed crop losses in the field

In addition, everyday each participant informed about the status of weed management in his/her country, major weed problems, control methods, constraints and progress. This information was of enormous value for drafting outlines of project.

Dr Singh, Assistant of FAO Director-General (Asia & Pacific), in his speech to open the course, stressed the importance of weed control in Asia, the lack of labour in many countries and the need to develop new approaches of improved weed management in the region. In this context, he asked the participants to prepare outlines for a future regional project on IWM.

Weed management is the most important activity in direct-seeded rice of the region. Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Philippines are all having more than 40% of rice areas under direct-seeded procedures, which compel farmers to use herbicides. Red rice is becoming a very serious problem in Vietnam and Malaysia.

India is facing serious problems of resistant weed (Phalaris minor) in its main wheat-rice cropping area due to repeated use of herbicide isoproturon in wheat. P. minor adopts mimetic forms with regards to wheat, so hand weeding is nearly impossible.

Korea is using increased amount of herbicides in their rice areas and demands for the implementation of new approaches with less chemical control. Here the problem is that Korea is also increasing its area of direct-seeded rice.

Other countries as Bangla Desh, Laos and Nepal are still to develop more research activities. Their weed management component is still weak in all cases.

Information provided by R. Labrada