Department researches weed
control methods
By Ian Clift
Summer Reporter
Weeds are the bane of all crop farmers in Indiana
and around the world, and scientists in Purdue's botany and plant pathology
department have the task of finding ways to fend off the weeds.
The trend in weed control is to use genetically
modified crops that are resistant to herbicides sprayed on the fields.
One such example is Monsanto's Round Up Ready hybrid corn and soybean
crops which have been genetically modified to allow growers to use a
herbicide, also provided by Monsanto, to control weed growth in fields.
Round Up soybeans make up 75 percent of soybean
crop in Indiana and around 60 to 65 percent nationwide, said Thomas
Bauman, professor of weed science.
Bauman and others test genetically modified crops
and common crops with herbicides during the growing season; industry
representatives observe the results of those tests during the annual
Weed Day, which occurs Tuesday.
Round Up crops can be found in soybeans, corn and
cotton. Monsanto is in the process of producing other products such
as genetically modified wheat and rice.
While herbicides on the market don't seem to do
much damage to the environment and do their job of killing weeds’
resistance against herbicides, other scientists at Purdue are looking
for new ways to kill undesirable plants.
Steve Hallett, assistant professor of botany/plant
pathology, said, "We know that (plant) diseases are very damaging; you
can use those diseases to kill undesirables."
"There is a lot of work done in biological control
of weeds using insects, bacteria and other organisms as well," he said.
Hallett, who began work at Purdue on April 24,
has worked with fungi and fugal plant pathogens to control weeds.
Each fungus is different in order to attack a target
weed. "What we do to make this useful is try to find particular weeds
that are a significant problem as a single species.," he said. Some
species that cause problems are pigweed, common water hemp and rag weed.
The goal of research like Hallett's is to develop
biological herbicides that could be used to replace the chemical herbicides
that are used currently.
But research in agronomy is at a low, said Bauman,
several years ago there were 20 to 25 major companies selling weed control
products, now there are only 7 or 8 companies making more than $ billion
in annual sales in the industry.
"There has been a huge consolidation in the industry,"
he said. Major agricultural research companies usually have a strong
pharmaceutical base as well. "A lot of money has been diverted to pharmaceuticals,"
he said.
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