Trade-offs constrain the success of glyphosate-free farming.

Glyphosate, the most widely used herbicide, is linked with environmental harm and there is a drive to replace it in agricultural systems. We model the impacts of discontinuing glyphosate use and replacing it with cultural control methods. We simulate winter wheat arable systems reliant on glyphosate and typical in northwest Europe. Removing glyphosate was projected to increase weed abundance, herbicide risk to the environment, and arable plant diversity and decrease food production. Weed communities with evolved resistance to non-glyphosate herbicides were not projected to be disproportionately affected by removing glyphosate, despite the lack of alternative herbicidal control options. Crop rotations with more spring cereals or grass leys for weed control increased arable plant diversity. Stale seedbed techniques such as delayed drilling and choosing ploughing instead of minimum tillage had varying effects on weed abundance, food production, and profitability. Ploughing was the most effective alternative to glyphosate for long-term weed control while maintaining production and profit. Our findings emphasize the need for careful consideration of trade-offs arising in scenarios where glyphosate is removed. Integrated Weed Management (IWM) with more use of cultural control methods offers the potential to reduce chemical use but is sensitive to seasonal variability and can incur negative environmental and economic impacts.

Understanding the Effects of Ligand Configuration on Protoporphyrinogen IX Oxidase with Rationally Designed 3-(N-Phenyluracil)but-2-enoates.

Protoporphyrinogen IX oxidase (PPO, EC 1.3.3.4) is a promising target for green herbicide discovery. However, the ligand configuration effects on PPO activity were still poorly understood. Herein, we designed 3-(N-phenyluracil)but-2-enoates using our previously developed active fragments exchange and link (AFEL) approach and synthesized a series of novel compounds with nanomolar ranges of Nicotiana tabacum PPO (NtPPO) inhibitory potency and promising herbicidal potency. Our systematic structure-activity relationship investigations showed that the E isomers of 3-(N-phenyluracil)but-2-enoates displayed improved bioactivity than their corresponding Z isomers. Using molecular simulation studies, we found that the E isomers showed a relatively lower entropy change and could sample more stable binding conformation to the receptor than the Z isomers. Our density functional theory (DFT) calculations showed that the E isomers showed higher chemical reactivity and lower electronic chemical potential than their corresponding Z isomers. Compound E-Ic emerged as the optimal compound with a Ki value of 3.0 nM against NtPPO, exhibiting a broader spectrum of weed control than saflufenacil at 37.5-75 g ai/ha and also safe to maize at 75 g ai/ha, which could be considered as a promising lead herbicide for further development.

New Perspective on the Use of α-Bisabolol for Weed Control.

The indiscriminate use of synthetic herbicides reduces its effectiveness. Bioherbicides produced with metabolites emerge as an alternative to managing weeds. We aimed to analyze the phytotoxic potential of the essential oil of Vanillosmopsis arborea (EOVA) and the α-bisabolol molecule, its main component. We evaluated the effects of EOVA and α-bisabolol at different concentrations on the germination, growth, antioxidant metabolism, and photosynthesis of different species. EOVA and α-bisabolol showed promising phytotoxic effects on the germination and initial growth of the weed Senna occidentalis, inhibiting the activity of the antioxidant enzymes and increasing lipid peroxidation. α-Bisabolol reduced the weed seedling growth by inducing oxidative stress, which suggests a greater role in postemergence. Moreover, in the weed postemergence, both EOVA and α-bisabolol caused damage in the shoots, reduced the chlorophyll content, and increased lipid peroxidation besides reducing photosynthesis in S. occidentalis. Overall, we suggest the promising action of α-bisabolol and EOVA as bioherbicides for weed control.

Stereo Vision for Plant Detection in Dense Scenes.

Automated precision weed control requires visual methods to discriminate between crops and weeds. State-of-the-art plant detection methods fail to reliably detect weeds, especially in dense and occluded scenes. In the past, using hand-crafted detection models, both color (RGB) and depth (D) data were used for plant detection in dense scenes. Remarkably, the combination of color and depth data is not widely used in current deep learning-based vision systems in agriculture. Therefore, we collected an RGB-D dataset using a stereo vision camera. The dataset contains sugar beet crops in multiple growth stages with a varying weed densities. This dataset was made publicly available and was used to evaluate two novel plant detection models, the D-model, using the depth data as the input, and the CD-model, using both the color and depth data as inputs. For ease of use, for existing 2D deep learning architectures, the depth data were transformed into a 2D image using color encoding. As a reference model, the C-model, which uses only color data as the input, was included. The limited availability of suitable training data for depth images demands the use of data augmentation and transfer learning. Using our three detection models, we studied the effectiveness of data augmentation and transfer learning for depth data transformed to 2D images. It was found that geometric data augmentation and transfer learning were equally effective for both the reference model and the novel models using the depth data. This demonstrates that combining color-encoded depth data with geometric data augmentation and transfer learning can improve the RGB-D detection model. However, when testing our detection models on the use case of volunteer potato detection in sugar beet farming, it was found that the addition of depth data did not improve plant detection at high vegetation densities.

Acting pre-emptively reduces the long-term costs of managing herbicide resistance.

Globally, pesticides improve crop yields but at great environmental cost, and their overuse has caused resistance. This incurs large financial and production losses but, despite this, very diversified farm management that might delay or prevent resistance is uncommon in intensive farming. We asked farmers to design more diversified cropping strategies aimed at controlling herbicide resistance, and estimated resulting weed densities, profits, and yields compared to prevailing practice. Where resistance is low, it is financially viable to diversify pre-emptively; however, once resistance is high, there are financial and production disincentives to adopting diverse rotations. It is therefore as important to manage resistance before it becomes widespread as it is to control it once present. The diverse rotations targeting high resistance used increased herbicide application frequency and volume, contributing to these rotations' lack of financial viability, and raising concerns about glyphosate resistance. Governments should encourage adoption of diverse rotations in areas without resistance. Where resistance is present, governments may wish to incentivise crop diversification despite the drop in wheat production as it is likely to bring environmental co-benefits. Our research suggests we need long-term, proactive, food security planning and more integrated policy-making across farming, environment, and health arenas.

Controlled release herbicide formulation for effective weed control efficacy.

Controlled release formulation (CRF) of herbicide is an effective weed management technique with less eco-toxicity than other available commercial formulations. To maximise the effectiveness of CRFs however, it is crucial to understand the herbicide-releasing behaviour at play, which predominately depends on the interaction mechanisms between active ingredients and carrier materials during adsorption. In this study, we investigated and modelled the adsorption characteristics of model herbicide 2,4-D onto two organo-montmorillonites (octadecylamine- and aminopropyltriethoxysilane-modified) to synthesise polymer-based CRFs. Herbicide-releasing behaviour of the synthesised CRF microbeads was then analysed under various experimental conditions, and weed control efficacy determined under glasshouse conditions. Results revealed that adsorption of 2,4-D onto both organo-montmorillonites follows the pseudo-second-order kinetics model and is predominately controlled by the chemisorption process. However, multi-step mechanisms were detected in the adsorption on both organoclays, hence intra-particle diffusion is not the sole rate-limiting step for the adsorption process. Both organoclays followed the Elovich model, suggesting they have energetically heterogeneous surfaces. Herbicide-releasing behaviours of synthesised beads were investigated at various pH temperatures and ionic strengths under laboratory and glasshouse conditions. Furthermore, weed control efficacy of synthesised beads were investigated using pot studies under glasshouse condition. Desorption studies revealed that both synthesised microbeads have slow releasing behaviour at a wide range of pHs (5-9), temperatures (25-45 °C), and ionic strengths. The results also revealed that synthesised microbeads have excellent weed control efficacy on different broad-leaf weed species under glasshouse conditions.

Non-destructive environmental safety assessment of threatened and endangered plants in weed biological control.

Assessing the risk of nontarget attack (NTA) for federally listed threatened and endangered (T&E) plant species confamilial to invasive plants targeted for classical biological control, is one of the most important objectives of pre-release environmental safety assessments in the United States. However, evaluating potential NTA on T&E species is often complicated by restrictive agency requirements for obtaining propagules, or the ability to propagate plants and rear agents to the appropriate phenostages synchronously for testing, or both. Here, we assessed whether plant cues associated with a host recognition can be used for testing the attractiveness of four T&E and one rare single population plant species non-destructively for a candidate biocontrol agent. We used the seed-feeding weevil, Mogulones borraginis, a candidate for the biological control of the invasive plant, Cynoglossum officinale (Boraginaceae) as the study system. We collected olfactory and visual cues in the form of flowering sprigs from T&E plant species confamilial to the invasive plant in a non-destructive manner and used them to measure behavioral responses and searching time of weevils. Female weevils preferred C. officinale to all tested plant species in dual-choice bioassays using either olfactory or visual cues in a modified y-tube device. Furthermore, female weevils were repelled by the combined olfactory and visual cues from all tested T&E plant species in a dual-choice test against controls (e.g., purified air in an empty arm), indicating that it would be extremely unlikely for the weevil to attack any of these species upon release in the United States. Principal component analysis based on 61 volatile organic compounds effectively separated the five confamilial plant species and C. officinale, corroborating the results of behavioral bioassays. We conclude that studies on pre-alighting host selection behavior and the underlying physiological mechanisms of how organisms select host plants they exploit can aid in environmental safety testing of weed biological control agents.

Behavioral factors driving farmers' intentions to adopt spot spraying for sustainable weed control.

Smart Farming Technologies enable plant-specific agrochemical applications which can increase the efficiency and reduce the environmental impacts of agriculture. However, the uptake of Smart Farming Technologies remains slow despite their potential to enhance sustainable transformation of food systems. The design of policies to promote sustainable agricultural technologies requires a holistic understanding of the complex set of factors driving the adoption of innovations at farm level. This study has a focus on behavioral factors, such as pro-environmental attitude, personal innovativeness and moral norms. Based on an online study conducted in Germany, structural equation modelling is applied to test the predictions of an extended version of the Theory of Planned Behavior, using spot spraying, a smart weeding technology, as an example. The results confirm theoretical predictions and show that indicators of attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control have relevant effects on farmers' adoption intentions. The extended model revealed a medium-sized (small) direct effect of moral norms on the attitude towards spot spraying (adoption intention). Personal innovativeness had a small effect on adoption intention, whereas pro-environmental attitude did not exhibit a clear direction of impact. Methodological and policy implications derived from the results are discussed noting that the inclusion of indicators for moral norms can improve the predictive power of models used in future research in this field. Overall, initiatives aimed at facilitating the exchange of opinions and related moral norms as well as collaboration among peers may contribute to voluntary sustainable innovation as it enhances adoption intentions among farmers.

Weed biology and management in the multi-omics era: Progress and perspectives.

Weeds pose a significant threat to crop production, resulting in substantial yield reduction. In addition, they possess robust weedy traits that enable them to survive in extreme environments and evade human control. In recent years, the application of multi-omics biotechnologies has helped to reveal the molecular mechanisms underlying these weedy traits. In this review, we systematically describe diverse applications of multi-omics platforms for characterizing key aspects of weed biology, including the origins of weed species, weed classification, and the underlying genetic and molecular bases of important weedy traits such as crop-weed interactions, adaptability to different environments, photoperiodic flowering responses, and herbicide resistance. In addition, we discuss limitations to the application of multi-omics techniques in weed science, particularly compared with their extensive use in model plants and crops. In this regard, we provide a forward-looking perspective on the future application of multi-omics technologies to weed science research. These powerful tools hold great promise for comprehensively and efficiently unraveling the intricate molecular genetic mechanisms that underlie weedy traits. The resulting advances will facilitate the development of sustainable and highly effective weed management strategies, promoting greener practices in agriculture.

Effects of varying tillage practices and weed control methods on the efficacy of infiltration models.

Agricultural land preparation and weed control techniques are essential farm management tools that affect the dynamics of soil water infiltration and the estimation accuracy of infiltration models. To analyse the interaction effect of tillage and weed control methods on the changes in soil physical properties and the efficacy of infiltration models, an experiment was conducted on a sandy clay loam forest ochrosol at Hodzo near Ho in Ghana. Four tillage systems (No Tillage [NT], Reduced Tillage [RT], Plough + Harrow + Ridging [PHR], and Deep Tillage + Plough + Harrow + Ridging [DPHR]) and three weed control methods (Hoeing [H], Machete [MAT] and No Weeding [NW]) were employed. The study also tested the reliability of the models (Kostiakov, Philip, and Horton) using the goodness of fit statistical criteria: Root mean squared error (RMSE), Mean absolute error (MAE), Coefficient of determination (R2), and Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE). The results show that conservation tillage systems (CsT) and conventional tillage systems (CT) with MAT weeding treatments recorded the highest moisture content across the studied soil profile, especially for NT x MAT (11.189%) which was significant (p < 0.05) in the 15-30 cm layer; the lowest were observed in the CsT and CT with H weeding interactions, especially for the DPHR x H (8.086%). Comparing the interaction effect on the soil infiltration, the highest mean infiltration rate was significant (p < 0.05) under the NT X H treatment combination whilst the lowest infiltration rate was recorded in the DPHR X H and PHR X NW treatment combinations. The efficiency of the fitting models (Kostiakov > Horton > Philip) highly prioritised the soil tillage operations and weed management under the treatments DPHR x MAT > DPHR x NW > DPHR x H > RT x MAT > PHR x NW > PHR x MAT > NT x NW > RT x MAT > PHR x H > RT x H > NT x MAT > RT x NW > NT x H in that order. The trend shows that the increase in tillage intensity and the decrease in weed management intensity induce the quality of the estimation process and vice versa. The study, therefore, identified the use of machete (MAT) with DPHR under the Kostiakov model as the efficient land management for modelling the cumulative infiltration characteristics of the sandy clay loam ochrosols of the study area.

The impact of burial depth on Centaurea diluta emergence and modelling of its growth using a nonlinear regression and artificial neural network.

BACKGROUND: Centaurea diluta Aiton (North African knapweed) is a major weed concern in Spain as a result of the limited herbicides capable of controlling it, and the limited knowledge of its biology hinders the development of integrated weed management strategies. RESULTS: The current study presents results from two experiments that aimed to: (i) determine the effect of seed burial on seedling emergence; and (ii) model its phenology progression using sigmoidal (SRM) and artificial neural network models (ANN) based on different cohort emergence times. In the first experiment, burial at 2 cm and 5 cm decreased C. diluta emergence by 54% and 90%, respectively, compared to the emergence at 0 cm. In the second experiment, without crop-weed competition conditions, the emergence delay led to reductions in leaf number, rosette diameter, plant height and dry biomass by 63%, 50%, 59% and 93%, respectively. Seed production per plant exceeded 21 469. According to the growth model, leaf number was the most consistent morphological trait and critical for timing weed control actions, so it was used to compare SRMs and ANNs. On average, ANNs increased the precision in 5.72% (± 2.4 leaves) compared to SRMs. This slight performance of ANNs may be valuable for controlling C. diluta because control methods must be applied at the 4-leaf stage to achieve good efficacy. CONCLUSION: Seed burial at 5 cm depth is an effective method reducing C. diluta emergence. ANNs accurately predicted the leaf number employing environmental variables can help increase the efficiency of C. diluta control actions and reduce the risk of escapes. © 2023 The Authors. Pest Management Science published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

Exploring the effect of region on diversity and composition of weed seedbanks in herbicide-resistant crop systems in the United States.

BACKGROUND: Soil seedbanks have been recognized as one of the crucial components of agricultural ecosystems. However, studies on the shift in structure and biodiversity of soil seedbanks in herbicide-resistant crop systems are limited, and a functional trait perspective of the soil seedbank is often overlooked. RESULTS: A 6 years experiment was conducted to investigate the roles of region, crop system, and weed management strategy on species richness, functional trait diversity, and composition of the weed seedbank. Species richness was different across the interaction of region and crop system, while functional trait diversity only showed difference across regions. Species and functional trait compositions were affected by the interaction of region and crop system. Specifically, the compositional difference among crop systems was mainly determined by the significant heterogeneity of group dispersion. CONCLUSION: Growers and practitioners should consider weed functional traits in developing lasting agricultural management strategies. Long-term weed research should draw attention to the impact of transgenic crop systems and specific management tactics on weed dispersal, functional composition, and resistance evolution of weed species in such agroecosystems. © 2023 The Authors. Pest Management Science published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

Predicting the unpredictable: the regulatory nature and promiscuity of herbicide cross resistance.

The emergence of herbicide-resistant weeds is a significant threat to modern agriculture. Cross resistance, a phenomenon where resistance to one herbicide confers resistance to another, is a particular concern owing to its unpredictability. Nontarget-site (NTS) cross resistance is especially challenging to predict, as it arises from genes that encode enzymes that do not directly involve the herbicide target site and can affect multiple herbicides. Recent advancements in genomic and structural biology techniques could provide new venues for predicting NTS resistance in weed species. In this review, we present an overview of the latest approaches that could be used. We discuss the use of genomic and epigenomics techniques such as ATAC-seq and DAP-seq to identify transcription factors and cis-regulatory elements associated with resistance traits. Enzyme/protein structure prediction and docking analysis are discussed as an initial step for predicting herbicide binding affinities with key enzymes to identify candidates for subsequent in vitro validation. We also provide example analyses that can be deployed toward elucidating cross resistance and its regulatory patterns. Ultimately, our review provides important insights into the latest scientific advancements and potential directions for predicting and managing herbicide cross resistance in weeds. © 2023 The Authors. Pest Management Science published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

PROTAC for agriculture: learning from human medicine to generate new biotechnological weed control solutions.

Weed control has relied on the use of organic and inorganic molecules that interfere with druggable targets, especially enzymes, for almost a century. This approach, although effective, has resulted in multiple cases of herbicide resistance. Furthermore, the rate of discovery of new druggable targets that are selective and with favorable environmental profiles has slowed down, highlighting the need for innovative control tools. The arrival of the biotechnology and genomics era gave hope to many that all sorts of new control tools would be developed. However, the reality is that most efforts have been limited to the development of transgenic crops with resistance to a few existing herbicides, which in fact is just another form of selectivity. Proteolysis-targeting chimera (PROTAC) is a new technology developed to treat human diseases but that has potential for multiple applications in agriculture. This technology uses a small bait molecule linked to an E3 ligand. The 3-dimensional structure of the bait favors physical interaction with a binding site in the target protein in a manner that allows E3 recruitment, ubiquitination and then proteasome-mediated degradation. This system makes it possible to circumvent the need to find druggable targets because it can degrade structural proteins, transporters, transcription factors, and enzymes without the need to interact with the active site. PROTAC can help control herbicide-resistant weeds as well as expand the number of biochemical targets that can be used for weed control. In the present article, we provide an overview of how PROTAC works and describe the possible applications for weed control as well as the challenges that this technology might face during development and implementation for field uses. © 2023 The Authors. Pest Management Science published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

Broad host-range pathogens as bioherbicides: managing nontarget plant disease risk.

Plant pathogens with a broad host range are commercially more attractive as microbial bioherbicides than strictly host-specific pathogens as a result of the wider market potential of a product capable of controlling multiple species. However, the perceived spatiotemporal disease risk to nontarget plants is a barrier to their adoption for weed control. We consider two approaches to managing this risk. First, we consider safety zones and withholding periods for bioherbicide treatment sites. These must ensure inoculum spreading from, or surviving at the site, exposes nontarget plants to no more inoculum than from natural sources. They can be determined using simple dispersal models. We show that a ratio of added:natural inoculum of 1.0 is biologically reasonable as an 'acceptable risk' and a sound basis for safety zones and withholding periods. These would be analogous to the 'conditions of use' for synthetic chemical herbicides aimed at minimizing collateral damage to susceptible plants from spray drift and persistent soil residues. Second, weed-specific isolates of broad host-range pathogens may avoid the need for safety zones and withholding periods. Such isolates have been found in many broad host-range pathogen species. Their utilization as bioherbicides may more easily meet the requirements of regulators. Mixtures of different weed-specific isolates of a pathogen could provide bioherbicides with commercially attractive spectrums of weed control activity. © 2023 The Authors. Pest Management Science published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

Biological Control of Weeds in turfgrass: opportunities and misconceptions.

Turfgrass systems may offer opportunities for overcoming some constraints on the successful implementation of weed biocontrol. Of the roughly 16.4 million ha of turfgrass in the USA, ≈60-75% are in residential lawns and 3% are golf turf. Annual expenditures for a standard herbicide treatment regimen for residential turf are estimated to be ≈US$326 ha-1 , about 2-3-fold greater than that for USA corn and soybean growers. Expenditures can be >US$3000 ha-1 for control of certain weeds such as Poa annua in high-value areas including golf fairways or greens, but those applications are made to far smaller areas. Regulatory actions and consumer preferences are creating market opportunities for alternatives to synthetic herbicides in both commercial and consumer markets, but the size of these markets and willingness-to-pay are poorly documented. Turfgrass sites are intensively managed, yet despite the ability to modify site conditions through irrigation, mowing and fertility management, microbial biocontrol agents tested thus far have not provided the consistently high levels of weed control expected in the market. Recent advances in microbial bioherbicide products may offer a path to overcome many of the obstacles to success. No single herbicide will control the diversity of turfgrass weeds, nor will any single biocontrol agent or biopesticide. Successful development of weed biocontrol for turfgrass systems will require numerous, effective biocontrol agents for the many weed species found in turfgrass environments, as well as a deeper understanding of different turfgrass market segments, and weed management expectations for each segment. © 2023 The Author. Pest Management Science published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

Potential of utilizing pathogen-derived mycotoxins as alternatives to synthetic herbicides in controlling the noxious invasive plant Xanthium italicum.

Discovery of environmentally friendly agents for controlling alien invasive species (AIS) is challenging and in urgent need as their expansion continues to increase. Xanthium italicum is a notorious invasive weed that has caused serious ecological and economic impacts worldwide. For the purpose of exploring the possibility of utilizing herbicidal mycotoxins to control this species, three compounds, a new compound, curvularioxide (1), a new naturally occurring compound, dehydroradicinin (2), and a known compound, radicinin (3), were isolated via activity-guided fractionation from the secondary metabolites of the pathogenic Curvularia inaequalis, which was found to infect X. italicum in natural habitats. All isolated compounds exhibited potent herbicidal activity on receiver species. It is noteworthy to mention that their effects on X. italicum in our bioassays were equivalent to the commercial herbicide glyphosate. Subsequent morphological analysis revealed that application of radicinin (3) severely hindered X. italicum seedlings' hypocotyl and root development. Malondialdehyde content and the activity of catalase and peroxidase of the seedlings were also significantly different from the control, implying the occurrence of induced oxidative stress. Our results suggest that pathogens infecting invasive plants might be valuable resources for developing safer herbicides for controlling weeds. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry.

Action of the fungal compound citrinin, a bioherbicide candidate, on photosystem II.

BACKGROUND: Bioherbicides are becoming more attractive as safe weed control tools towards sustainable agriculture. Natural products constitute an important source chemicals and chemical leads for discovery and development of novel pesticide target sites. Citrinin is a bioactive compound produced by fungi of the genera Penicillium and Aspergillus. However, its physiological-biochemical mechanism as a phytotoxin remains unclear. RESULTS: Citrinin causes visible leaf lesions on Ageratina adenophora similar to those produced by the commercial herbicide bromoxynil. Phytotoxicity bioassay tests using 24 plant species confirmed that citrinin has a broad activity spectrum and therefore has potential as a bioherbicide. Based on chlorophyll fluorescence studies, citrinin mainly blocks PSII electron flow beyond plastoquinone QA at the acceptor side, resulting in the inactivation of PSII reaction centers. Furthermore, molecular modeling of citrinin docking to the A. adenophora D1 protein suggests that it binds to the plastoquinone QB site by a hydrogen bond between the O1 hydroxy oxygen atom of citrinin and the histidine 215 of the D1 protein, the same way as classical phenolic PSII herbicides do. Finally, 32 new citrinin derivatives were designed and sorted according to free energies on the basis of the molecular model of an interaction between the citrinin molecule and the D1 protein. Five of the modeled compounds had much higher ligand binding affinity within the D1 protein compared with lead compound citrinin. CONCLUSION: Citrinin is a novel natural PSII inhibitor that has the potential to be developed into a bioherbicide or utilized as a lead compound for discovery of new derivatives with high herbicidal potency. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry.

Can nanotechnology improve the application of bioherbicides?

Bioherbicides are composed of microorganisms or natural compounds and are used for weed control; however, they have specific weaknesses and constraints that hinder their development and success under field conditions. Nanotechnology can help to overcome these limitations by providing a good starting point for the design of specific formulations and carriers that minimize the deficiencies of natural compounds and microorganisms, such as low solubility, short shelf life or a loss of viability. In addition, nanoformulations can help to improve the efficacy of bioherbicides by increasing their effectiveness and bioavailability, reducing the amount required for a treatment, and enhancing their ability to target specific weeds while preserving the crop. However, it is important to choose the right materials and nanodevices depending on specific needs and considering several factors inherent to nanomaterials such as production cost, safety or possible toxic effects. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry.