|
Organic weed management: A practical guide |
Organic weed management: A practical guide. (446 KB pdf file) A report, with figures, describing the systems and practice required for weed control in organic horticultural and agriculture in temperate climates. Updated in September 2002 with additional information on perennial crops, composts, manures, irrigation, post harvest issues, thermal weeders, and an updated further sources of information section. Download reference in RIS format.
The above donation system is provided by PayPal and is hosted on their secure servers.
Although the first version of this booklet 'Organic weed management: A practical guide' was written well over a decade ago, it continues to be the most downloaded file on my website. Its continued popularity, along with my own experience and the change in weed management science and practice over the intervening years means that I believe it is now time for the original concept - providing the underpinning theory and practical techniques of 'organic weed management' to be expanded into a comprehensive manual. The new book / manual would not just be for organic producers though, while it would be almost entirely applicable to them, it will be aimed at all farmers and growers, as many non-organic producers are now finding that they have reached, or are reaching the limits of herbicide-only based weed management and are increasingly in need of alternative non-herbicide approaches. Therefore, the remit has grown from 'organic weed management' to 'physical and ecological weed management' i.e., non-herbicide weed management for farmers and growers.
However, writing such a manual, especially if it is to be truly comprehensive, is not a small undertaking. It is, therefore, not something I can do in my spare time and as I do not have the kind of employment that allows the production of such books (e.g., a secure university position), I need funding if I am to write it (to put food on the table and a roof over my family's heads). I have written a scoping proposal detailing the concept (including a one-page summary).
I am looking both for for large and small funders: large funders such as government funds and philanthropic organisations, who could fund all or a significant part of the books production so I can write full time (If you are such an agency, or have contacts in such an agency, please contact me to discuss funding options); small funders are typically 'end users' i.e., farmers, growers, other agricultural scientists etc. It is the latter that I consider to be the key future funders of the manual.
My hope is to make the manual an open access eBook (eManual), i.e., to publish the manual on the web with free access to all its content, just the same as 'Organic weed management: A practical guide' is free to download and use. However, following the maxim 'there is no such thing as a free lunch' I will be asking end-users for donations to pay for the ongoing support and updates for the book, just like Wikipedia does (please see the proposal for full information on how the donation system will work).
I am currently searching for and applying to large funding organisations, but progress so far is slow and no funding has been gained. I have therefore decided to trial an end-user donation system to see what response it generates. If successful, it would enable me to start work on the book, even if it is part time. So, if you find 'Organic weed management: A practical guide' useful (or any other of the items on my website) and you would like to make a donation, I would be most grateful. To make a donation please click on the PayPal 'Donate' button at the top of this page.
All donations I receive will be converted into hours of work which I will spend researching and writing the 'Physical and Ecological Weed Management eManual'.
The size of donation is entirely up to you, but if you would like a guide, think of how much you would be prepared to pay for such information if you purchased it as a hardcopy book in a book store, or if you are a farmer or grower, how much money 'Organic weed management: A practical guide' has saved you on your farm, and then donate a small portion of that amount. This latter approach is in keeping with the 'ability to pay' principle e.g., producers with smallholdings pay a small donation as the amount of money they may save will be comparatively small, while larger farms stand to save considerable amounts of money so passing an equal percentage of a larger amount on is fairer.
Please also tell your friends, colleagues etc about this appeal and ask them to donate, the more people that donate, the sooner I can start work.
Thanks for your interest and happy weeding!