Author
 |
Duke, Stephen |
|
Submitted to: Pest Management Science
Publication Type: Review Article Publication Acceptance Date: 7/17/2014 Publication Date: 7/23/2014 Publication URL: http://handle.nal.usda.gov/10113/60645 Citation: Duke, S.O. 2014. Perspectives on transgenic, herbicide-resistant crops in the United States almost 20 years after introduction. Pest Management Science. 71:652-657. Interpretive Summary: Technical Abstract: Herbicide-resistant crops have had profound impacts on weed management since they were introduced in 1995. Most of the impact has been by glyphosate-resistant maize, cotton, soybean, and canola. Significant economic savings, yield increases, and more efficacious and simplified weed management resulted in widespread adoption of the technology. Initially, glyphosate-resistant crops enabled significantly reduced tillage and reduced the environmental impact quotient of weed management. Continuous use of glyphosate with glyphosate-resistant crops over broad areas facilitated the evolution of glyphosate-resistant weeds, which have resulted in increases in the use of tillage and other herbicides with glyphosate, reducing some of the initial environmental benefits of glyphosate-resistant crops. Transgenic crops with resistance to auxinic herbicides, as well as to herbicides that inhibit acetolactate synthase, acetylCoA carboxylase, and hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase, stacked with glyphosate and/or glufosinate resistance, will become available in the next few years. These technologies will provide additional options for farmers, but will not have the positive impacts that glyphosate-resistant crops had initially. In the more distant future, other herbicide-resistant crops (including non-transgenic ones), herbicides with new modes of action, and technologies that are currently in their infancy (e.g., bioherbicides, sprayable herbicidal RNAi, and/or robotic weeding) may impact the role of transgenic, herbicide-resistant crops in weed management. |
