Environmental Impact of Imidazolinone-Resistant Rice Adoption in Contrasting Production Systems of Latin America

40% of the poorest population in Latin America (LA) has rice as the staple food in their daily intake; therefore, the safe and affordable supply to the population is of crucial importance for the governments of the region. In general terms, the estimate of production losses due to weeds is 7,000 billion dollars compared to 30,000 billion real production in LA in eight crops evaluated in 1988-90. In the case of rice cultivation, weedy rice is responsible for a good proportion of the volume of losses that occur.

Weedy rice is difficult to control with the tools available up to now because it involved a very tight management of the crop and a high dedication from the farmer. The advent of Clearfield® Technology will simplify weed control, especially in weedy rice. This technology will allow treating large areas at an affordable cost. On the other hand, the inappropriate use of this technology will lead to more serious weed problems due to the generation of resistance in weedy rice and other species, loss of herbicides due to lack of efficacy due to cross resistance. The project had the objective of training technicians and producers in the proper use of Clearfield® Technology.