Tolerance expands across the American continent

Alarm for weed tolerance to glyphosate and agrochemical derivatives is being raised all over the world. From the United States to Argentina and Australia, producers have met with a common enemy that advances and they have not managed to combat it yet.

Research done in the United States shows that 61.2 million acres (24.77 million ha), a fourth of the total, have some variety of glyphosate-tolerant weed in this country. This figure doubled in two years.  Canada is also going through an alarming situation, not so much due to the quantity but because of the speed at which these herbs were able to adapt to single-crop farming.

Argentina is undergoing a similar situation, in which there is an increasing pressure of tolerant weeds in Cordoba, Santa Fe, Buenos Aires and the Northeast of the country. These bad herbs are predominant in soy and maize crops. However, tolerance in fruit crops has been found in areas where glyphosate is applied by producers up to seven times per campaign.

Even though specialists claim there is no particular formula to combat this terrible phenomenon, Ignacio Olea, agricultural engineer at the Experimental Station Obispo Colombres, maintains that we have to “anticipate weeds. We have to attack them before they develop. Germination is the adequate moment; it is when the residual herbicide has to be applied, taking advantage of the fallow land”.

These weeds can be found in Uruguay and Paraguay, but to lesser extent than in Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia. Despite the lack of corresponding thorough research, the existence of these herbs is clear.