Manejo de plantas daninhas em sistemas orgânicos de produção

Abstract

Organic agriculture has increased in recent years, accompanied by the growing concern of society with the sustainable production of safe and quality food. Among the many problems faced by organic producers, there are the losses caused by the weeds presence, which can limit the crop productivity and increase production costs. In this context, the aim of this work was to identify and analyze the main weed management methods used in organic production systems. For this, different academic materials considering books, articles and others that dealt with this theme were raised and the cultural, physical, mechanical and biological methods were analysed. The results obtained allowed the identification of several advantages and disadvantages associated with each method. Cultural methods have the advantages of greater soil cover and the possibility of increasing income in the area, in addition to pest and disease control, but they have disadvantages such as higher expenses with seeds and inputs and better need for area planning. Physical methods can be highly effective in control, but they can present high implementation costs due to the acquisition of necessary materials, equipment or technologies. Mechanical methods, on the other hand, can also present high efficiency, but they have limitations in relation to operational efficiency (manual methods) and can promote soil compaction when machinery is used. In relation to biological control, the methods have a low environmental impact, but may have high costs. These results can serve as guidance for organic producers in choosing the different practices that can be used in organic production, being of great importance the integrated use of control strategies, in order to promote sustainable agricultural development.