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Feasibility of using mycoherbicides for controlling illicit drug crops [electronic resource] / Committee on Mycoherbicides for Eradicating Illicit Drug Crops, Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources, Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology, Division on Earth and Life Studies, National Research Council of the National Academies

Published
Washington, D.C. : National Academies Press, c2011.
Physical Description
xvi, 169 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.
Additional Creators
National Research Council (U.S.). Committee on Mycoherbicides for Eradicating Illicit Drug Crops, National Research Council (U.S.). Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources, and National Research Council (U.S.). Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology
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Contents
Introduction -- Biological control of undesirable plants -- Target illicit crops -- Fusarium Oxysporum Formae Speciales as candidate biological control agents for Cannabis and Coca -- Crivellia Papaveracea and Brachycladium Papaveris as candidate biological control agents against Opium Poppy -- Answers to charge questions.
Summary
"The control of illicit-drug trafficking and drug use is a difficult and complex process that involves a variety of prevention, control, treatment, and law enforcement strategies. Eradication strategies for controlling illicit-drug crops are used to target the beginning of the drug-supply chain by preventing or reducing crop yields. Mycoherbicides have been proposed as an eradication tool to supplement the current methods of herbicide spraying, mechanical removal, and manual destruction of illicit-drug crops. Some people regard them as preferable to chemical herbicides for controlling illicit-drug crops because of their purported specificity to only one plant species or a few closely related species. As living microorganisms, they have the potential to provide long-term control if they can persist in the environment and affect later plantings. Research on mycoherbicides against illicit-drug crops has focused on three pathogens: Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cannabis for cannabis (Cannabis sativa), F. oxysporum f.sp. erythroxyli for coca (Erythroxylum coca and E. novogranatense), and Crivellia papaveracea or Brachycladium papaveris (formerly known as Pleospora papaveracea and Dendryphion penicillatum, respectively) for opium poppy (Papaver somniferum). Feasibility of Using Mycoherbicides for Controlling Illicit Drug Crops addresses issues about the potential use of the proposed mycoherbicides: their effectiveness in eradicating their target plants; the feasibility of their large-scale industrial manufacture and delivery; their potential spread and persistence in the environment; their pathogenicity and toxicity to nontarget organisms, including other plants, fungi, animals, and humans; their potential for mutation and resulting effects on target plants and nontarget organisms; and research and development needs. On the basis of its review, the report concludes that the available data are insufficient to determine the effectiveness of the specific fungi proposed as mycoherbicides to combat illicit-drug crops or to determine their potential effects on nontarget plants, microorganisms, animals, humans, or the environment. However, the committee offers an assessment of what can and cannot be determined at the present time regarding each of the issues raised in the statement of task."--Publisher's description.
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ISBN
9780309221719 (pbk.)
0309221714 (pbk.)
Bibliography Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 132-152).
View MARC record | catkey: 8507070