Chemistry of Herbicides – Winning the Competition

Living organisms continuously compete for available resources – this is a major driving force of Evolution. Plants compete against each other (both interspecific and intraspecific) on available nutrients, water, sunlight, pollinators and territory necessary for survival. Evolution of numerous plants has led to development of many different approaches to succeed in this competition.

During the development of farming over the years, utilization of fertilizers, crop rotation, land tillage and use of herbicides to control the unwanted weeds has significantly increased the yield and efficiency of the agriculture. It is estimated that without use of modern agricultural methods the yields would be reduced by 30 – 50%. With continuous growth of the planet population, accompanied by substantial reduction of available crop lands and climatic changes, there is a strong demand for new, more effective technologies for increasing agricultural yield.

Herbicides, also commonly known as weed killers are pesticides used to control the unwanted plants (terrestrial or aquatic). Pesticides are chemicals, which prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate any pest. Application of herbicides in agriculture offers the farmer crucial advantage to "help" the desired crop to win the essential competition against the weeds.

The lecture will give an overview of herbicides - from basic definitions, through different classifications toward several examples of most known Herbicides.

Synthesis of several active ingredients (as Manufactured by ADAMA) will be discussed. This will demonstrate the challenges ADAMA faces as one of global top producers with regards to synthetic and environmental aspects.