IWMPRAISE: Newsletter and resources
Although the IWMPRAISE project has now officially ended, it leaves behind an extensive selection of resources for all those interested in Integrated Weed Management (IWM). As the project’s final external newsletter makes clear, these include but are not limited to an IWM tool, tool sheets offering complementary information to the IWM tool, how-to inspiration sheets, e-learning modules, IWM games and scientific publications.
Project coordinator Per Kudsk, from Denmark’s Aarhus University, writes in the newsletter: “The IWM tool can help advisors and farmers to design IWM strategies against annual and perennial weeds in both annual and perennial crops.”
Opening the IWM tool, users choose a crop group (perennial, narrow row or broad row) and weed group (annual or perennial) and are provided with a range of weed management tools and tactics. These options are presented as hexagons, colour-coded according to their effect (reduced weed impact on crop, preventing establishment or reducing seed returns).
These tools and tactics are divided into categories comprising diversifying cropping systems (rotations, cover crops etc.), cultivar choice and establishment (seed rate, transplanting etc.), field and soil management (seed bed preparation, cultivation depth etc.) and direct control (pre-emergence herbicides, mechanical weeding etc.).
Each time users click on an individual hexagon, they are provided with an information sheet offering details of applicability, efficacy, equipment required and sources of further information etc.
New tool information sheets have now been added to the IWMPRAISE website and can be viewed as a complement to the fact sheets presented in the IWM tool. More than 30 different tool sheets are available and they can be filtered by tool category or by crop.
The newsletter reports: “The idea is that each tool sheet will introduce an IWM tool and explain how it works, give an indication of its readiness for use in practice (one to five tractors, five tractors meaning immediately ready) an attempt to indicate the effectiveness of the tool against weeds (indicated by one to five weed plants, five plants meaning highest efficacy), and illustrate its use by one or two photographs. Finally, on some of the tool sheets, links are given to other resources from the project.”
The project has also published 32 different inspiration sheets, describing various aspects of IWM in a very concise way, with the emphasis on ‘how to do it’. These include topics such as weed management without glyphosate, common ragweed control, mechanical weeding technologies and weeding strategies for vineyards.
In addition, the newsletter flags up the project’s IWM game (described on the ENDURE website here), e-learning modules, scientific publications and social media platforms.
For more information:
Last update: 31/03/2023 - ENDURE © 2009 - Contact ENDURE - Disclaimer