Implications of Agenda 2000 on weed control in Northern Europe

Agenda 2000 further exposes European crop production to global markets. It is surmised that wheat is currently the only commodity crop that can be gro wn competitively in Northern Europe. This is particularly true for the heav ier soils, where production is often limited to commodity crops. The abilit y to increase the area of wheat and/or to reduce its unit cost of productio n on these soils is severely limited by annual grass weeds and take-all, th e cereal root disease. The continued development of herbicide resistance in annual grass weeds is of particular concern. Hence, Agenda 2000 has increa sed the need for better annual grass weed control in wheat. New knowledge a nd technology have the potential to more than offset the possible reduction in biodiversity caused by any increased adoption of winter wheat should th e industry fail to increase the choice of crops that can be produced compet itively.