Allelopathic Control of Native Weeds

Weeds are undesired plants that are of no economical use and are hard to manage by farmers. Weeds affect the growth and development of crops and therefore limit their productivity (Ani, Onu, Okoro, & Uguru, 2018). In the agricultural system, weeds compete with crop plants resulting in the loss of their yield (Gaba, Reboud, & Fried, 2016). They limit the accessibility of light, moisture, space to crops and deteriorate their quality (Guglielmini, Verdu, & Satorre, 2017). In view of these features, it has become necessary to check its growth. However, with the beginning of agriculture, the most prominent weed control approaches include an application of herbicides and hand/motorized weeding (Jabran, Mahajan, Sardana, & Chauhan, 2015; Young, Meyer, & Woldt, 2014). These approaches have a remarkable contribution to the improvement of crop production; but various hurdles are associated with them, as well. However, wide utilization of herbicides to check the growth of weeds has led to severe ecological and environmental problems like herbicide resistance, a shift in weed flora, and environmental pollution and health hazards due to their toxic residues in soil, water, and food chain. The harmful effect of commercial herbicides makes it suitable to explore various other weed management alternatives (Nirmal Kumar, Amb, & Bora, 2010) and allelopathy seems to be one of the options (Rawat, Maikhuri, Bahuguna, Jha, & Phondani, 2017). Allelopathy is an eco-friendly weed management tool, which is practiced to combat the impacts of environmental pollution. Allelopathy is a chemical method that allows the plant to compete for a narrow range of resources (Gioria & Osborne, 2014).