Abstract Weed management has become increasingly important in the backdrop of sustainable crop production, uncertain climatic patterns and food security concerns in Pakistan. Due to diverse agro-climatic conditions, 267 weed species have been identified to be responsible for causing monetary loss worth 3 billion USD annually. Weed competition for resources, interference with crops, weed-related increased incidence of pests and diseases in different crops, and high management costs incurred in controlling weeds make weed management a critical task for the farmers. Moreover, herbicide resistant weeds, labor shortage, higher wages, weed population shifts, changing climatic optima, unavailability of proper and timely inputs, ever increasing threats of invasive weeds, lack of knowledge and training regarding herbicides, and the poor financial resources of the small land holders are major hurdles towards effective weed management in Pakistan. These multi-dimensional problems need holistic line of action with multi-disciplinary collaboration. Improved knowledge of weed ecology, biology, genetics and molecular biology is essential for developing sustainable weed control practices. Some advances are already commercialized, and others are in the process of development. Advancements like vision guided machines for site-specific weed management, recognition and application modules, development of air inclusion nozzles, nanoherbicides, water based formulations with fewer hydrocarbons, herbicide-resistant transgenic crops, robotics to monitor and spray weeds, decision support systems and predictive modeling can be adopted to foster modern weed management in the country. Various conventional weed management approaches like narrow row spacing, row orientation, increased crop density, use of cover crops, intercropping, development of weed-competitive crop cultivars, and their integration can help reduce herbicide input under a given scenario. There is dire need to establish regional weed research institutes under various cropping systems to carry out strategic and applied research in weed science. Innovative teaching and training practices are needed to tackle complex weed management challenges. Effective linkages between academia-research-industry-extension services could play a pivotal role to reframe technological advancements and legislation and to advocate innovations to the farmers. Capacity building, more research fund allocation, and reorienting educational system seem indispensable. Here, we have presented a broad review to summarize the current state of knowledge about the problems and prospects of sustainable weed management approaches in Pakistan. Advanced weed management approaches keeping in view the local agro-ecological conditions have also been discussed in this review to improve the scientific knowledge so that the discipline gets stronger and more focused than ever before.

中文翻译：

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巴基斯坦杂草管理的挑战和前景：综述

摘要 在巴基斯坦可持续作物生产、气候模式不确定和粮食安全问题的背景下，杂草管理变得越来越重要。由于不同的农业气候条件，已确定 267 种杂草每年造成价值 30 亿美元的经济损失。杂草对资源的竞争、对作物的干扰、与杂草相关的不同作物病虫害发生率增加以及控制杂草产生的高管理成本使杂草管理成为农民的一项重要任务。此外，抗除草剂杂草、劳动力短缺、工资上涨、杂草种群转移、不断变化的气候最适、无法获得适当和及时的投入、不断增加的入侵杂草威胁、缺乏有关除草剂的知识和培训，小土地所有者的财政资源匮乏是巴基斯坦有效管理杂草的主要障碍。这些多维问题需要多学科协作的整体行动路线。提高杂草生态学、生物学、遗传学和分子生物学知识对于开发可持续的杂草控制实践至关重要。一些进展已经商业化，而另一些则处于开发过程中。诸如用于特定地点杂草管理、识别和应用模块的视觉引导机器、空气夹杂喷嘴的开发、纳米除草剂、碳氢化合物较少的水基配方、抗除草剂转基因作物、监测和喷洒杂草的机器人技术、决策支持系统和预测等先进技术可以采用建模来促进该国的现代杂草管理。各种传统的杂草管理方法，如窄行距、行方向、增加作物密度、使用覆盖作物、间作、开发与杂草竞争的作物品种，以及它们的整合，可以帮助在给定情况下减少除草剂的投入。迫切需要在各种种植制度下建立区域性杂草研究所，以开展杂草科学的战略和应用研究。需要创新的教学和培训实践来应对复杂的杂草管理挑战。学术界-研究-产业-推广服务之间的有效联系可以在重新制定技术进步和立法以及向农民倡导创新方面发挥关键作用。能力建设、更多的研究基金分配和重新定位教育系统似乎是必不可少的。这里，我们进行了广泛的审查，以总结关于巴基斯坦可持续杂草管理方法的问题和前景的知识现状。本次审查还讨论了考虑到当地农业生态条件的先进杂草管理方法，以提高科学知识，从而使该学科比以往任何时候都更加强大和专注。