Cultural management works to create conditions that give crops a preferred landscape in which to thrive. Enhancing the biological landscape of the soil in favour of the crop will create an unfavourable environment for many weeds.
Cultural management methods are a vital part of sustainable agriculture which aims to address unwanted plants and insects before they become a problem. Prevention is easier than cure.
The use of chemicals has disconnected farmers from an intimate understanding and relationship with agriculture. This has resulted in farmers overlooking how much control they have over initial plant and insect problems. Chemical farming works in a self-defeating manner by producing a system which favours weeds and overabundant insects. Through the use of herbicides and the planting of monoculture crops year after year weeds find their way in because these conditions are advantageous to them, giving weeds an enormous 'one up' over crops.
Cultural management integrates developing and sustaining healthy and balanced soil fertility. It involves planning long-term crop management which is best suited to the natural landscape. It is important to get onto unwanted plants and insects early in their life cycle when they are most vulnerable. Cultural management relies on a combination of methods for most effective weed control.
Article: CulturalWeedControl1 (permalink) Date: 4 January 2013; 1:38:31 PM AEDT