Why are herbicides essential for modern agriculture?
Every year, up to 40 percent of the world’s potential harvests are lost to damaging factors, including weeds. About 30,000 different types of weeds are competing with crops for space, water, nutrients and sunlight.
A Farmer who does not apply a broad-spectrum herbicide can suffer from harvest losses of up to 22% due to difficulty to control weeds.
Glyphosate-based herbicides enable no-till and reduced tillage farming practices which in turn lead to less soil erosion and a reduction in carbon emissions. For example, in 2014 alone, the carbon emission reduction was equivalent to removing nearly 2 million cars from the road.