Allelopathy and its role in agriculture

Allelopathic interactions play a significant role in plant‐plant, plant‐microblal interactions. Along with its importance in natural ecosystems, allelopathy also has vast implications in agricultural systems. Various allelopathic interactions including weed‐weed, weed‐crop, and crop‐crop have been observed. Because of the increased interest in various agricultural systems where plant interactions are critical, knowledge of allelopathy is a necessity. However, even with knowledge of the nature and existence of allelopathy, the proper balance of growth factors such as light, space, water and nutrients appear just as important. This paper is not meant to downplay these factors, but rather to demonstrate the existence of still another factor which must be recognized if we are to fully understand the interactions of crops and the environment. When our knowledge of these interactions is more complete, they may become useful tools in plant breeding, herbicide studies and crop production.