Herbicide Resistance, Tillage, and Community Management in the Pacific Northwest

Katherine Dentzman and Ian Cristofer Burke
Additional contact information
Katherine Dentzman: Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA
Ian Cristofer Burke: Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 4, 1-18

Abstract: The use of glyphosate as a replacement for tillage has been credited with spurring the adoption of conservation tillage in the United States. With herbicide-resistant weeds becoming a significant agronomic problem, however, it is unclear whether conservation tillage gains are in danger of being reversed as farmers turn to tillage to manage weeds that herbicides can no longer kill. Using 2015 focus groups, a 2016 national survey, and an ongoing Community Herbicide Resistance Management Initiative in four communities of the Pacific Northwest we assess the following questions: (1) How do U.S. farmers view tillage as an option for controlling herbicide-resistant weeds, (2) Do attitudes towards and experience with herbicide-resistant increase farmers’ usage of tillage, and (3) Can community management provide an avenue for maintaining conservation tillage while also increasing effective management of herbicide-resistant weeds? We find that many farmers consider tillage to be an emergency fail-safe in managing weeds, that there is a complex relationship between herbicide resistance awareness, concern, and tillage use that can be partly explained by experience and dedication to conservation tillage, and finally that community management has the potential to provide the support and resources necessary to prevent a large-scale increase in tillage related to herbicide resistance management.

Keywords: herbicide resistance; conservation tillage; community management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/4/1937/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/4/1937/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:4:p:1937-:d:497615

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().