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Environment

Superweeds are on the brink of becoming resistant to all weedkillers

By Michael Le Page

14 June 2019

crop spraying

Today’s weedkillers won’t be effective forever

Powered by Light/Alan Spencer / Alamy Stock Photo

The most damaging weed in the UK is about to become resistant to the main defence farmers have against it – the weed-killer glyphosate. And the situation is similar in many other countries around the world, with more than 500 weed strains having evolved resistance to at least one herbicide.

Many weeds have evolved resistance to several different kinds of herbicides, and some are set to become resistant to all the herbicides used on particular crops. That is bad news for farmers, consumers and wildlife. These…

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