Author
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Wiles, Lori |
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Submitted to: Weed Technology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Publication Acceptance Date: 8/28/2004 Publication Date: 11/20/2004 Citation: Wiles, L. 2004. Economics of weed management: principles and practices. Weed Science. Weed Technology 18:1403-1407. Interpretive Summary: Invasive plants are weeds that invade natural areas and rangelands, crowding out native plants and causing both ecological and economic damage. The recent, rapid invasion of these plants has been characterized as a biological wildfire and invasive plant biologists must quickly find affordable methods for managing these weeds. The fundamental economic principle for weed management is simple, act only if the benefits exceed the costs, but implementation of this principle is difficult. Fortunately, weed scientists have years of experience of identifying ecologically and economically sound methods for farmers to control weeds in crops and also, developing tools to help a farmer choose the best management strategy for individual fields. Invasive plant biologists can learn from both the successes and failures of weed scientists to more quickly find affordable strategies for weeds in natural areas and rangelands. For both weed scientists and invasive plant biologists, helping managers with cost-effective management is hindered most by lack of information about why weeds succeed in certain environments and what controls how quickly a population increases and spreads over time. Technical Abstract: Weed scientists and invasive plant biologists must find cost-effective, ecologically-based methods to manage undesirable plants. Economic analyses are needed for management, policymaking and setting research priorities. The fundamental economic principle for weed management is simple: Act only if the benefits exceed the costs. Implementation of the principle is difficult, however, with the many and typically uncertain costs and benefits of management. The economic threshold is a well-known, but not practical implementation of this fundamental economic principle. However, adoption of the threshold concept has spurred the development of decision models and use of methods of decision analysis. With these tools, scientists have quantified some risks of management and the value of information about the weed population in a field for management decisions or the value of specific information about weed biology for identifying new management strategies. Meaningful analysis for economic weed management is currently limited by lack of understanding of weed population and spatial dynamics and problematic communication between weed scientists and agricultural economists. |
