OBJECTIVE 3
Prioritise key threats and develop effective, integrated management strategies.
Each growing season brings new challenges for farmers, with threats like Sclerotinia quietly affecting sunflower and soybean crops. These diseases do not just reduce yields but also impact the stability of farming livelihoods across South Africa.
This objective focuses on identifying these key threats and developing practical, integrated strategies to manage them effectively. Through collaboration between researchers, industry experts, and producers, the South African Sclerotinia Research Network has become a vital platform for tackling these issues head-on.
The projects under this objective explore innovative solutions, from monitoring disease spread and manipulating flowering times to testing environmentally friendly treatments. Together, these efforts aim to equip farmers with reliable tools to protect their crops and secure their futures.
While the work on Sclerotinia has marked a bold step in tackling one of the most destructive pathogens in sunflower and soybean systems, it forms just one part of a much larger effort. Across South Africa’s summer grain regions, black commercial farmers are up against a complex network of soilborne threats. Some are invisible to the eye, others crawl just below the surface, but all quietly erode yields, profitability, and long-term sustainability.
To meet these challenges head-on, several new projects are digging deeper into the soil to uncover answers. From root-rotting fungi and parasitic nematodes to the elusive yet devastating cutworm, each initiative under Objective 4 explores a different facet of the plant health puzzle. These projects are designed not only to generate insight, but to deliver real, usable solutions for farmers. The work is practical, grounded in science, and shaped by the conditions that producers face every season.
Even as farmers contend with pests below the soil and diseases that weaken their crops, another threat continues to spread across their lands. Aggressive and increasingly resilient weeds are becoming one of the most urgent challenges in crop production.
Weeds compete directly with crops for water, nutrients, sunlight and space. They reduce yields, interfere with harvesting and raise production costs. As herbicide resistance becomes more widespread, the options available to control weeds are shrinking. Conservation agriculture, while essential for long-term soil health, often reduces the use of mechanical weed control. This places greater reliance on chemical interventions, which are becoming less effective and more expensive. Farmers are left with fewer tools and higher risks, forcing them to adapt quickly to changing conditions.
To respond to this evolving threat, new research efforts are under way. These projects are focused on understanding how weed invasions take hold, how resistance develops and what practical steps can be taken to regain control. In the following section, two projects take centre stage. One is uncovering the genetic origins and herbicide resistance patterns of Palmer amaranth, an invasive species with a strong foothold in key production regions. The other is testing harvest weed seed control as a promising new method to prevent weed seed return in conservation farming systems.
These initiatives are part of a growing response to support farmers with timely information, targeted interventions and long-term strategies to manage weeds more effectively.
