Читать книгу The Digital Agricultural Revolution - Группа авторов - Страница 37

India needs 400 million tons of food to feed nearly 1.7 billion people by 2050 [12]. The food production decreases due to irregular climate which favors weed growth and thereby reduces the yield and quality of production. Many researchers in India studied the economic loss due to the presence of weeds. According to Sahoo and Saraswat, the loss was estimated to be INR 28 billion in the last two decades [8]. Bhan et al. [9] estimated that the 31.5% of reduction is mainly due to weeds. Varshney and Babu [10] estimated an economic loss of INR 1050 billion/year. Yogita et al. [11] estimated about 11 billion dollars lost due to weeds. The major crop which estimated economic losses is groundnuts, maize, soybean, wheat, rice, and so on [11, 28]. It is reported that about one third of total losses are because of weeds [13]. Despite efforts taken by weed management, weeds are considered to be a serious issue for different crops and other ecosystems. The main challenges faced by Indian farmers are as follows [36]:

1 (i) managing weeds in small area cultivation,

2 (ii) inadequate labor and modern tools,

3 (iii) less information about weed biology,

4 (iv) impact of climate change on growth of weeds,

5 (v) lack of knowledge in usage of herbicide which kills the weeds.

Various weed managements are prevailing, namely chemical, mechanical, biological, and cultural control. It is difficult to manage the weed effectively using single weed management. The use of integrated weed practices is suggested by many researchers [14–20] for major crops like rice, wheat, finger millet, maize, cotton, groundnut, and so on [29]. In a nutshell, it is proven that the herbicides combined with hand weeding help in removing weeds and increase crop production [21]. However, location-specific weed management with AI technology is necessary for Indian crops.