ISU to work on herbicide resistance strategies with USDA grant

An Iowa State University project on managing herbicide-resistant weeds is one of 12 grants to increase food security and improve food production announced recently by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA).

The $910,000 grant to ISU will work to develop and facilitate adoption of strategies that manage herbicide-resistant weeds in major crop systems.

The project is led by Micheal Owen, University Professor in the agronomy department, and in collaboration with economists, sociologists and weed scientists from the University of Arkansas, University of Arizona, University of Minnesota, Michigan State University, North Carolina State University and Portland State University.

NIFA announced $6 million in grants to universities, college and federal labs across the country. The grants, made by NIFA through the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative’s Food Security challenge area, support research, education and extension efforts to increase food security and improve food production. The goal of the challenge area is to increase agricultural productivity and the availability and accessibility of safe and nutritious food.

ISU’s Owen has been studying herbicide resistance in weeds for years. Herbicide-resistant weeds are a significant and increasing threat to Iowa crop production as well as crop production in all U.S. crop systems.

“The evolution of herbicide resistance has been a complex interaction of agronomic, economic and sociologic factors,” said Owen. “Similarly, developing weed management strategies is equally complex. But the resulting strategies from this project will provide more effective herbicide-resistant weed management and improved food security.”

Owen said the project will identify the technical, environmental and socio-economic factors that have contributed to the evolution of herbicide-resistant weeds; quantify the relative importance of different barriers to adoption of effective management strategies; and develop solutions that will be acceptable to agricultural production systems.