Glyphosate Tolerance in Cotton: Challenges of Weed Resistance and Pathways to Sustainable Management

Abstract

Roundup Ready Flex (RRF) cotton has brand new essentially recreated the modern-day system of weed control, using glyphosate during an entire growing season. This rate of variability facilitates use of conservation tillage approximation, simplifies the functioning of the farms, and has been accredited with better results of soil health findings, all of which help in bringing about the sustainability of cotton production. However, its reliance on glyphosate has led to the development of glyphosate resistant strains of weeds, which jeopardizes the sustainability of the system. Perturbations of the ecological sturdiness are fanned due to declines in agricultural assortment and changing lines of weed species in unity. Integrated Weed Management (IWM) has thus emerged as a suitable solution and proposed the application of coordinated chemical, cultural, mechanical, and biological control strategies to alleviate the resistance and protect sustainable productivity. This current discourse hence outlines the advantages and constraints of RRF cotton, as well as explains the need to use adaptive, integrated policies to ensure the sustainability of cotton weed management in the future. It highlights the contribution of precision agriculture, trait stacking and an appropriate policy framework in sustaining cotton agroecosystems at the same level of productivity that is also environmentally safe.