| Innovation starts with objectives. We normally find only what we are looking for. Unexpected directions may occur in rare cases. It is however very complicated to rely on unknown events from innovation point of view. Innovators develop their research strategies based on agronomic requirements or demands of the consumer of agricultural products, based on economic expectations, on regulatory restrictions, on research institute strength and on research institute portfolio requirements.
Chemical Herbicides have been indispensable tool for farmers to in developed countries for more than 50 years. High labour costs, energy prices, erosion as an environmental problem and competition resulted in the reduction of mechanical weed measures and resulted in a leading role of chemical herbicides as agrochemicals. Due to the recent trends in environmental awareness concerning the side effects of herbicides, public demands for development of safer, more environmental friendly approaches for weed control. The development of weeds resistant by the application of herbicides demands new alternate to cope with the problem since economic losses
generated by weeds can be higher than those caused by other pests. Innovators are continuously searching for identification and characterization of most effective, economical and environmentally safer synthetic herbicides by screening large number of synthetic organic molecules, synthesizing analogs of patent herbicides, designing new herbicide molecules based on target site approach and screening of natural products for friendly trends in weed management force scientists to reach for innovative sources and tools.
Fungi are well recognized for their ability to produce diverse biologically active metabolites including herbicides. The herbicidal properties of fungi can be exploited successfully as atool for the management of weeds. The Large number of secondary metabolites produced by fungi
provides ecofriendly, diverse and challenging chemical structures. The biological control of
weeds by mycoherbicides (fungal weed pathogens and/their metabolites) have received
considerable consideration. Mycoherbicides offer an innovative approach to the management of Lantana weeds using formulated fungal phytopathogen or their natural metabolite extracts would serve as an important component in integrated management strategy. In this research paper, we present the work for the management of Lantana camaranoxious weeds of India &
with isolated indigenous fungal pathogens and by their metabolites.
Keywords: Invasive Alien Noxious Weeds, Lantana, Biocontrol, Indigenousfungi, Mycoherbicide, Marasmins
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