Current Status and Perspective of Weed Science in Asian Pacific Region

This paper reviews current status of weed science in Asian-Pacific regional agricultural systems based on the 24th Asian-Pacific Weed Science Society Conference. About 190 researchers from 16 countries including Korea participated in the Conference and presented 160 papers in 11 research areas. Major research topics were invasive weeds and their ecology, allelopathy, weed management in paddy field, weed management in field crops, and herbicide resistance. Because rice is a major food crop in Asian countries, weed control and herbicide resistance management in paddy field were a main object of research. Weed control in maize, soybean and wheat has also been studied continuously. To prevent the increase of problematic weeds and to overcome food crisis, the importance of weed-related researches has been raised. Therefore it is expected that various weed management systems and control of herbicide resistant weeds should be studied continuously in the future.