Weed research: is it delivering what it should?

I believe the overall balance and current direction of much weed research is wrong, with too much emphasis on 'scientific impact' at the expense of practical application. For example, despite considerable research effort, Integrated Weed Management has not been widely adopted by farmers. Weed research, as a whole, has delivered less than it should have done in recent years, because of lack of appreciation of the difficulty and costs involved in scaling up experimental results to be applicable at a realistic field scale in real farming systems. In addition, there is often a lack of awareness of the complexities and resources needed to translate research results into actions that farmers, who may be counted in their millions, are willing to adopt. What is needed is truly integrated research, across the whole spectrum from basic to applied, with all elements contributing to real improvements in weed management. It should never be forgotten that, however great the 'impact' of a publication, it achieves nothing in terms of improving our ability to manage weeds until the results are used in practice. Effective technology transfer is essential. Weed research is an applied discipline, and the question needs to be asked repeatedly and critically, 'Why study weeds?'.