Economics of weed management in the Australian vegetable industry
Weeds are a persistent problem for many vegetable producers in Australia. Although the economic impact of weeds on Australian vegetable production has been estimated at the national level, information on the farm level economic impacts of weeds in this industry is limited. Previous research suggests that vegetable farmers have difficulty in reliably estimating the economic impacts of weeds within their crops. This research also indicates that there is a variety of innovative weed control practices, which may have been recently developed or have potential for more widespread adoption as part of an Integrated Weed Management (IWM) program. These practices have not necessarily been widely adopted amongst Australian vegetable growers, and evidence of their farm-level economics is lacking. The review of literature conducted for this project also highlighted a ‘collective action’ dimension of farm-level weed control that arises from weed management, including adoption of innovative weed control practices on one property affecting weed populations on neighbouring properties.