Weed management in perennial Conservation Agriculture systems: optimising use of groundcover
摘要
Perennial crops are normally considered as those that are permanent, requiring a number of growth cycles before fruit is produced. One of the characteristics of these plants is their requirement for winter chilling before flowering the following spring (Hatfield & Walthall, 2014). The importance of perennial crops is obvious. In addition to being traditional crops, always rooted in local cultures, in recent years, perennial crops have gained considerable popularity among farmers across the world for their economic benefit. The profitability of perennial crops is based on reduced expenses for seed and fertiliser (since the crop is seeded once and harvested many times), and reduced costs for weed control, compared to other cultural practices associated with annual crops (Cui et al., 2018).