Weed management in Conservation Agriculture systems: farmers’ testimonies

Publication date: 17/07/2025
Extent: 40 pages

Contributions by: Gottlieb Basch, Mediterranean Institute for Agriculture, Environment and Development (MED) – Universidade de Évora, Portugal; Søren Ilsøe, Knudstrupgaard Farm, Denmark; Miguel Barnuevo-Rocko, Finca Munibañez s/n Chinchilla, Spain; Anderson Schmitz, Schmitz Family Farm, Brazil; Marcelo Zanella, Agricultural Research and Rural Extension Company of Santa Catarina (EPAGRI), Brazil; Benjamin Dias Osorio Filho, Chalé do Seival/State University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil; Luiz Antônio Pradella, Pradella Group, Brazil; Valmor dos Santos, Inovação Agrícola, Brazil; Corey Loessin, Aidra Farms Ltd, Canada; and Marie Luise Carolina Bartz, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil/ University of Coimbra, Portugal

Chapter synopsis:

In this concluding chapter, several testimonies of farmers about their experiences regarding weed management after the shift to CA are presented to emphasize the importance of practitioners' views when profound changes in farming methods are needed. The testimonies comprise different agroecologies and farming systems: two in Europe, one in the Atlantic Central region (Denmark) and the other in the Mediterranean South (Spain), both working in annual cropping systems; two in Brazil, one in the Cerrado biome of the Bahia state in the Northeast, dedicated to annual broadacre crops, and the other in the South, in the Santa Catarina state, with a temperate but hot summer climate, specialized in horticultural crops. Finally, a farmer from the cold semi-arid Canadian prairies, cropping cereals, oilseed rape, and pulses.

DOI: 10.19103/AS.2024.0145.20