Bioherbicides: An Eco-Friendly Weed Management Strategy Towards Sustainable Agriculture

Sustainable and eco-friendly weed management presents a significant challenge in the twenty-first-century agricultural sector. A substantial burden has been forced on agriculture, especially by the injudicious use of chemical herbicides, resulting in extensive environmental contamination. It is essential to have environmentally safe and cost-effective solutions with reduced use of chemical herbicides to improve productivity and sustainability in agriculture. Bioherbicides ought to possess active ingredients derived from living organisms, e.g., fungi, bacteria, and viruses, including the natural byproducts during their growth, or plant-derived products with phytotoxic properties along with ancillary compounds (e.g., surfactants, adjuvants, preserving agents, water retaining additives, inert fillers, and more) applied for eco-friendly weed control in cropping and non-cropping zones. Therefore, the importance of bioherbicide usage in sustainable agriculture cannot be overemphasized. This chapter provides insight into the concept and categories of bioherbicides, the history of the development of bioherbicides, methods of bioherbicide production, formulation of bioherbicides and their application, mode of actions of bioherbicides, factors affecting their efficacy, and the limitations of bioherbicides development and application for sustainable weed management.