Weed management: the broader context - Ecological Management of Agricultural Weeds - page 508

emphasizes the chemical approach rather than the ecological one. Many
factors are involved, but we believe that this emphasis largely reflects the
ability of chemical company funding to direct researchers toward issues and
problems favorable to the industry, and away from technologies that could
potentially reduce herbicide sales.
Those who argue that the relative attention paid to herbicide tolerant and
weed tolerant crops in USDA sponsored research results from their relative
merit might consider the following scenario. Suppose that half of the chemi-
cal company grants to public sector weed scientists that currently support
research on herbicide-tolerant crops went instead for research on weed-
tolerant crops. Would the number of USDA projects still be so skewed toward
research on herbicide-tolerant crops?
How can support for research on ecological weed management be
improved? First, government research programs need to target more funding
for work on sustainable agricultural systems and ecological pest manage-
ment. Emphasis needs to be placed on incorporating research priorities for
sustainable, ecologically based agriculture into all funding programs for agri-
cultural research, rather than pigeonholing them into a few small programs.
Otherwise, research on sustainable agricultural systems will not enter the
mainstream and will be vulnerable to cuts in specific programs, and most
funds will be directed elsewhere (Batie & Swinton, 1994).
Second, funding programs need to support a balance between research on
farming systems and component research on sustainable agriculture. Some
advances in sustainable agriculture will only come through understanding
how farming systems can be better designed to achieve efficiencies of integra-
tion. Much remains to be learned, however, about individual system compo-
nents,and in particular,the ecology of weeds and their interaction with crops.
Often this is best studied with small, controlled experiments rather than in a
farming system context. Funding programs must be designed to allow inves-
tigators to ask a wide range of questions using a wide range of research
approaches, including mixed approaches in which multiple small component
studies feed into an evolving farming system comparison.
Third, mechanisms need to be developed for funding long-term agricultu-
ral research projects.Many fundamental questions in agriculture,particularly
those involving crop rotation, changes in soil properties, and evolution of
pests and pest communities are difficult to approach with the two- to five-year
grants currently available in most countries.These processes are important in
all agricultural systems, but understanding their operation is especially criti-
cal for continued development of sustainable agriculture and ecological weed
management. The United States National Science Foundation's Long Term