Weed management in Conservation Agriculture systems: farmers’ testimonies.

Abstract

This chapter comprises testimonies by farmers about their practical experiences of weed management after the shift to Conservation Agriculture (CA). They are presented to emphasize the importance of practitioners' views when such profound changes in farming methods take place. Case studies comprise: two in Europe, one in the Atlantic Central region (Denmark) and the other in the Mediterranean South (Spain), both working in annual cropping systems; three in Brazil (one in the Cerrado biome of Bahia state in the Northeast, dedicated to annual broadacre crops; another in the South, in the Santa Catarina state, with a temperate but hot summer climate, specialized in horticultural crops; and a third one practicing organic no-till farming in Rio Grande do Sul); and finally, a farmer from the cold semi-arid Canadian prairies, cropping cereals, oilseed rape and pulses.