Allelopathy and Its Implications in Agroecosystems

Summary Allelopathy includes both positive and negative effects of one plant on the other through environment, though most of the studies seem to focus on its deleterious impacts. It plays a key role in both natural and managed ecosystems. In agroecosystems, several weeds, crops, agroforestry trees and fruit trees have been shown to exert allelopathic influence on the crops, thus, affecting their germination and growth adversely. Some of the agricultural and horticultural crops affect their own seedlings grown in succession which is commonly known as replant problem/syndrome. Available studies indicate that allelochemicals act via bringing certain changes in physiological functions like respiration, photosynthesis and ion uptake. These, in turn, result in visible changes in seed germination, further growth reduction and overall performance of the target plants. The studies on interplant interactions assume significance in agroforestry programmes for selecting the types of crops complementary to the selective tree species. In the recent past, however, scientific attention has also been drawn to exploit the positive significant roles this phenomenon can play in enhancing crop productivity. In this context, we discuss the tremendous scope of allelopathy towards weed and pest management, apart from nitrogen conservation, and synthesis of novel agrochemicals based on natural product chemistry. The use of natural products of plant or microbial origin as pesticides/herbicides have gained much attention of the scientists as they offer many advantages over synthetic chemicals. The production of such chemicals should be enhanced by devising suitable protocols based on biotechnological procedures for their widespread utilization.